Murder Carte Blanche

When the City of Light goes very dark... Claire Baskerville and her expat book club are accustomed to diving into thrilling narratives, but nothing could prepare them for a field trip into the shadowy depths of the Paris catacombs that ends in the murder of one of their members. Once the Parisian police arrest the leader of the book club as their prime suspect, Claire knows she has to do what she can to make sure the police aren’t wrong. In a race against time, Claire will need to navigate the intricate maze of underground tunnels and confront her own fears, even as she grapples with the shocking revelation that the killer is someone she knows well. This tale of murder and betrayal will keep you turning pages late into the night as you explore beneath the streets of Paris into its heart-stopping underworld.

"April 1945, Italy. The final days of the Fascist Republic. Commissario De Luca is heading up a murder investigation that draws him into the private lives of the rich and powerful as World War II reaches its frantic climax. The regime's days are numbered and its disgraced leaders know it. Their desperate retreats and futile struggles for pieces of the post-war pie are making a regular cop's job awfully hard to do. With Mussolini's house of cards ready to collapse, De Luca faces a world mired in sadistic sex, dirty money, drugs, and murder." "Carte Blanche, the first installment in Carlo Lucarelli's "De Luca Trilogy," is much more than a first-rate crime story. It is also an investigation into the workings of justice in a state that is crumbling under the weight of profound historic change. The "De Luca Trilogy" is set during one of the 20th century's seminal moments and describes a nation's ardent search to rediscover its moral bearings after being torn in two by civil strife and political corruption. Threatened by the machinations of a decaying political class, De Luca (himself reminiscent of the disenchanted Dashiell Hammett PI) is a simple man doing a tough job as best he can. Even after closing his investigation, he will still have to face one final, fateful decision."--BOOK JACKET.

When her French chef boyfriend inherits an ancient vineyard in Provence, Maggie Newberry leaves Atlanta for the tiny village of St-Buvard and the rich tastes, smells and sights of French country life. But murder has gone long before them and follows close behind.

Michael Christian is dispatched to London to investigate a financial crimes case. What he walks into is a plot to finance the next terrorist attack on a historic London venue. As the two cases become intertwined police witnesses are being killed off at an alarming rate. Christian finds his name next on the list, but seems unable to stop the plot to kill him.Solving the company's case becomes an intricate part of helping the Metropolitan Police solve their murder case, drawing him and his new allies, Detective Constable David Marley and MI5 officer Miriam Bishara, deeper into a broader conspiracy. He navigates through English etiquette, political pressure, social customs and British Police procedures to bring his own style of gritty police and security experience to the investigation.Christian and his team race to keep the unthinkable from happening, as The Messenger, who has outsmarted them every step of the way, sits with his thumb on the detonator.

Murder, Voila! shows just how far Jules has come in the three years since the EMP stranded her in Provence. Limited electricity has come back to the area and phone lines are back up—at least for the sick and elderly. Jules continues to make her living as a private investigator although she still struggles with the language and life is full of rose wines, amazing food and the scent of lavender everywhere. On top of all that, she’s getting married! Just when life seems perfect with her pending nuptials to the Chabanel Chief of Police, his contentious mother comes to town to stop the wedding—and ends up dead. Will Luc be able to see past his mother’s murder and the fact that it appears as if one of Jules’ elderly roommates did the honors?

Care for a Little Murder with that Sweet Roll? Jules Hooker is doing her best to adjust to the new normal of a world without electricity, electronics, cars or the chance to return home. Stranded in the charming but provincial village of Chabanel wasn’t terrible until Jules discovers Aix-en-Provence and decides that the big city lights—even when they’ve gone out in the apocalypse—are much preferable to the countryside. Of course with a big city comes big city crimes and when a fellow American is accused of murdering a popular pastry chef in Aix, Jules knows she has to help. Unfortunately tracking a dangerous killer when you don’t know the language—or the French people themselves—soon has Jules bumbling into one dangerous situation after another. All the wonderful pastries aside, will this be lights out for Jules too?

Mia Kazmaroff has a gift nobody wants. She's able to tell the story behind any object simply by touch. It’s a gift that comes in handy when her only brother, a detective in the Atlanta Major Crimes Division is murdered. Determined to find his killer, Mia reaches out to the one person in Atlanta she believes can help her—Dave’s ex-partner, Jack Burton. Unfortunately, Burton is also the prime suspect. Together, Mia and Jack create a partnership that breaks all the rules, skirts every law, and lobs as many sparks and landmines at each other as if they were adversaries–which half the time they are—all while attempting to ignore their undeniable mutual attraction. Can two people so different—one intuitive and inexperienced, the other cynical and by-the-book—work together to solve the murder? And can they do it before the killer turns his attention to Mia?

Claire Baskerville is a "woman of a certain age" trying to make a new life for herself in the City of Light. When one of her clients—the owner of a popular expat bookstore—ends up brutally murdered in his bookstore, Claire finds herself in the hot seat. Working with a handsome police detective who was once her sworn enemy, Claire will need to find her client’s killer—while keeping herself out of jail and at the same time not the killer’s next victim.