A Christmas wedding ... what could go wrong? Soon-to-be married Tasha discovers that something special is, quite suddenly, missing. A Christmas wedding sounded like a good idea, but with her matron of honor busy planning the town's annual holiday party, and her fiancé swamped with work, Tasha may be in over her head. Has her missing accessory simply been misplaced? Or is something more sinister going down, once again this Christmas, in the small town of Cottage Grove? Each of the 3 cozy mysteries in the Cottage Grove Mystery Series can be read in a couple of hours. Perfect for a cozy night of reading by the fire. Read all three!: 1 - The Christmas Thief 2 - The Christmas Killer 3 - The Christmas Heist
Small town lawyer Thad Raker must win a case or Santa won’t come to town, but he doesn’t believe in Santa Claus or know the stakes when he takes the case for a homeless man who says he works for Santa. Henry Edmonds is on trial for stealing a flash drive which holds the key to Christmas coming. Several people claim ownership of the flash drive and want Edmonds in jail, including an elfish looking man who says he works for an international toy company. Witness by witness the facts come out but who is to be believed and are there any True Believers? And what’s so important about the flash drive to the fate of Christmas? A local newspaper reporter stirs things up by blogging about what he calls the “Trial of the Century” and tweets that the “Court’s Ruling Could Halt Christmas for Thousands.” Can an irascible judge looking toward retirement find it within himself to save Christmas? Landis Wade writes a script somewhere between the screenplays for My Cousin Vinny and Miracle on 34th Street, and that’s a wonderful place to be. –Suzanne Reynolds, former Dean, Wake Forest University School of Law The wisdom of Sheriff Andy Taylor, the witty banter of Night Court, and the magic of Miracle on 34th Street are presented as a joyous gift to all generations! –Chase Boone Saunders, Superior Court judge, retired Landis Wade combines his decades of crafty courtroom experience with his innocent appreciation of the magic of Santa to weave a clever, heart-warming legal who-done-it. –Jon Buchan, author of Code of the Forest
This humorous holiday/mystery trilogy puts belief in Santa Claus on trial in three stand-alone cozies with a lovable cast of characters and a host of non-believer adversaries. The trilogy starts with “The Christmas Heist,” a “script somewhere between the screenplays for My Cousin Vinny and Miracle on 34th Street,” says the former Dean of Wake Forest University School of Law “and that’s a wonderful place to be.” Defendant Henry Edmonds, a homeless man who looks a bit like Santa Claus, is put on trial on Christmas Eve for stealing a flash drive full of secrets, and if he goes to jail, Christmas won’t come. Book two is “The Legally Binding Christmas,” a Christmas mystery with romantic tension, where now widowed lawyer, Thad Raker, goes up against a formidable single female adversary and tries to save Christmas once again. When the local government his adversary represents moves to condemn the dilapidated home of Raker’s eccentric new client, the trial puts Santa’s distribution system at risk and Christmas in peril. The final story, “The Christmas Redemption,” won the 2018 Holiday category of the 12th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards and was Honorable Mention in the 2018 Holiday category in the 10th Annual Readers’ Favorite Awards. Thad Raker is hired to defend the toy company that made the most popular Christmas present in 50 years—the Reindeer Hoverboard—and becomes entangled in the greatest threat to Christmas yet when he learns that the survival of Santa’s North Pole village is at risk. Standing in Raker’s way are a large class of angry plaintiffs, an unbelieving judge, the FBI, several North Pole conspirators and Hank Snow, Raker’s nemesis from his previous Christmas trials. “The Christmas Redemption” is where “John Grisham meets Santa Claus,” says humorist and author Tracy Curtis, “for a hoverboard ride that seamlessly blends courtroom drama, corruption, climate change and Christmas with great humor and with a message about the true meaning of Christmas and the importance of family.”
Winner of the 2018 Holiday category of the National Indie Excellence Awards and Honorable Mention in the 2018 Holiday category in the Readers’ Favorite Awards, this book completes the Christmas Courtroom Trilogy, revealing secrets about the North Pole kept from attorney Thad Raker, a man who, for reasons made clear in the first two books, now believes in Santa Claus. When Raker is hired to defend the toy company that made the most popular Christmas present in 50 years—the Reindeer Hoverboard—he becomes entangled in the greatest threat to Christmas yet. And he learns that the survival of Santa’s North Pole village is at risk. Standing in Raker’s way are a large class of angry plaintiffs, an unbelieving judge, the FBI, several North Pole conspirators and Hank Snow, Raker’s nemesis from his previous Christmas trials. Raker needs all the help he can get in this, his toughest case ever, but Snow is the guardian of many secrets and has his own plans for the future of Christmas. Readers will delight in the surprising, multi-layered plot and cleverly-drawn characters, and their hearts will be warmed. - Ann Campanella, author of Motherhood: Lost and Found At once clever, heartfelt, and engaging, The Christmas Redemption is a merry legal adventure that is perfect for holiday reading. Phillip Lewis, author of The Barrowfields It's John Grisham meets Santa Claus, for a hoverboard ride that seamlessly blends courtroom drama, corruption, and Christmas with great humor--and with a message about the true meaning of Christmas. Landis Wade makes a True Believer out of me, in the magic of the holiday season! Tracy Curtis, humorist and author of Holidazed
“A comprehensive account of the legendary 1978 heist . . . impressive.” —Kirkus Reviews The crime that inspired the movie Goodfellas. The rest of the story that couldn’t be told—until now. One of the biggest scores in Mafia history, the Lufthansa Airlines heist of 1978 has become the stuff of mafia legend—and a decades-long investigation that continues to this day. Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Anthony DeStefano sheds new light on this legendary unsolved case using recent evidence from the 2015 trial of eighty-year-old mafioso Vincent Asaro, who for the first time speaks out on his role in the fateful Lufthansa heist. This blistering you-are-there account takes you behind the headlines and inside the ranks of America’s infamous Mafia families—with never-before-told stories, late-breaking news, and bombshell revelations. Praise for Anthony D. DeStefano’s TOP HOODLUM: Frank Costello, Prime Minister of the Underworld “An engrossing chronicle of the life of notorious Mafia boss . . . DeStefano’s canny insight into the don’s mind and motivations set this biography apart from others on Frank Costello.” —Publishers Weekly “DeStefano tells Costello's story well.” —Kirkus Reviews
A detail-driven account of how a gang of criminal misfits pulled off the world’s biggest cash robbery, from the bestselling author of true crime classic Fred & Rose. The target was a regional counting house for the Bank of England, a fortified concrete bunker located within a triangle of police stations, one only three hundred yards away. When former UFC cage fighter Lightning Lee Murray discovered that this cash centre held hundreds of millions of pounds, he assembled a team of mates including a mechanic, a roofer, and a used car dealer. A hairdresser made disguises for the men so they could pass off as police officers. In an Ocean’s Eleven–style robbery, the gang succeeded in hauling away a lorry-load of cash—a staggering £53 million (worth $87 million at the time)—a world-record sum. That’s when their problems began. By turns thrilling and hilarious, Heist is the compelling true story of this mind-blowing crime, including background on Lee Murray, the build-up to the heist, the robbery itself, and its aftermath. The subject of Catching Lightning, as seen on SHOWTIME.
Another Christmas mystery is brewing in Cottage Grove ... Tasha had only been teasing her pal, Lorena, when she’d called her brew “deadly.” Who knew the new camp director in town would soon be found poisoned to death—and Lorena, the camp cook—would be a suspect? After her own brush with death the year before, Tasha had promised her boyfriend, Marc, she would stay far away from sleuthing. But with Marc out of town, and all eyes on Lorena, what choice does she have? With Christmas coming, and a criminal on the loose, can Tasha solve the mystery … before the killer strikes again? "A perfect holiday season escape." ~ Amanda Flower, USA Today Bestselling Author, about The Christmas Thief
"Full of double and triple-crosses . . . Northern Heist’s deeds and details seem as real as a smashed kneecap, while its stopwatch tension, heightened by present-tense voice, is reminiscent of such classic caper films as 'Rififi' and 'The Asphalt Jungle."—The Wall Street Journal A fast-paced, suspenseful thriller based on one of the biggest (and still unsolved) bank-robberies in history, written by a former IRA bank robber. Nobody robs banks in Belfast without the IRA getting a cut -- not even former Provo James 'Ructions' O'Hare. But when word gets around O'Hare may be up to something, the pressure from the IRA begins. Ructions' trusts his crack squad of former paramilitary compadres, and has full confidence in his audacious plan: To literally empty the biggest bank in Belfast by kidnapping the families of two employees - known as a "tiger" kidnapping -- in order to force them to help Ructions and his crew get into the bank's vault. But keeping the plan -- and the money -- from the IRA is another plan entirely, one requiring all Ruction's cunning and skill. In this stunning debut novel, as audacious and well-executed as Ructions' plan to rob the National Bank itself, Richard O'Rawe -- a former IRA bank robber himself - unleashes a story that will shock, surprise and thrill as he takes you on a white-knuckle ride through Belfast's criminal underbelly. Enter the deadly world of tiger kidnappings, kangaroo courts, money laundering, drug deals and double-crosses.
From Lynda La Plante, one of the world’s greatest crime writers, Royal Heist is a big, dashing novel of deception, passion, and international suspense, in which a man with a dangerous double life masterminds the greatest robbery of all time. With a beautiful family and a magnificent fortune, Edward de Jersey is making news with his prized racehorse Royal Flush. But while de Jersey socializes with the cream of English society, he keeps to himself the details of his background and how he acquired his wealth. The son of an East End bookie, de Jersey reinvented himself as an aristocrat after pulling off some of England’s most notorious heists. He has no intention of ever going back to crime . . . until his financial adviser loses his entire fortune in a disastrous investment and de Jersey decides to retrieve it the old-fashioned way: by stealing it. From Monaco to the Hamptons, from London to the shadowy back alleys of cyberspace, de Jersey goes into action, using guile, force, and the latest technology to put together the perfect plan. Drawing on the expertise of a computer hacker with a passion for Elvis, the inside knowledge of a dying aristocrat, and the skill of a professional impersonator, de Jersey is ready to commit his greatest and final crime. He’s going to steal the crown jewels from under the nose of the royals themselves. Now, as Royal Flush prepares for a spectacular run at the Derby, de Jersey faces his moment of truth: How much is he willing to risk to win the sport’s most coveted prize? And just how far will he go to get away with the perfect crime? A novel that builds to an amazing crescendo of suspense, Royal Heist is a glamorous and gritty tale of men and women bound together by love, greed, trust, and mistrust. With all the pounding excitement of a high-stakes horse race, this is fiction that takes hold, doesn’t let go, and dares us to keep guessing until the very end.
An "effervescent" (Rachel Lynn Solomon) stand-alone Christmas LGBTQIA+ New Adult RomCom, perfect for fans of Schitt's Creek and Red White & Royal Blue. BRING A LITTLE JOY TO THE WORLD? NOT TODAY, SANTA. Matthew Prince is young, rich, and thoroughly spoiled. So what if his parents barely remember he exists and the press is totally obsessed with him? He's on top of the world. But one major PR misstep later, and Matthew is cut off and shipped away to spend the holidays in his grandparents' charming small town hellscape. Population: who cares? It's bad enough he's stuck in some festive winter wonderland—it's even worse that he has to share space with Hector Martinez, an obnoxiously attractive local who's unimpressed with anything and everything Matthew does. Just when it looks like the holiday season is bringing nothing but heated squabbles, the charity gala loses its coordinator and Matthew steps in as a saintly act to get home early on good behavior...with Hector as his maddening plus-one. But even a Grinch can't resist the unexpected joy of found family, and in the end, the forced proximity and infectious holiday cheer might be enough to make a lonely Prince's heart grow three sizes this year. While part of a series, this book stands alone. People Are Raving About Timothy Janovsky: "This book made my queer heart so very full and deeply happy."—Anita Kelly "A cinematic daydream guaranteed to steal your heart."—Julian Winters "Wonderfully upbeat and sweet."—Suzanne Park "Full of hope and heart."—Alexandria Bellefleur "[A] fresh, sweet, and swoony love story that blends coming-of-age comedy with the nuances of exploring sexual identity."—Alison Cochrun
