English Private Detectives

A deeply researched account of the life and legacy of the man who defined the profession of private eye. Allan Pinkerton, the world's most famous private detective, has been an enduring source of fascination since the nineteenth century. But the details of his impact, business empire, and private life have been incomplete. Drawing on overlooked primary sources, Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones provides an authoritative account of the man and the Pinkerton National Detective Agency (PNDA).

Carlos has spent 13 years living in Australia, eight of them as a serving officer with the New South Wales Police. But when he kills a man in the line of duty, Carlos’ life begins to unravel. His wife is subsequently murdered in mysterious circumstances, and Carlos is dismissed from the force. A devastated Carlos returns home to his Christchurch whānau and takes up a job as a private detective.

A young widow, orphan and mother, Wilhelmina Anne Brown is just beginning to find some stability in her new home in Prince Edward Island when she is forced to deal with the death of her beloved uncle Bill Darby. Darby, a Charlottetown private investigator, leaves Anne and her 14-year-old daughter a small savings account and his business, where Anne has worked as office manager for six years. What follows is Anne's struggle to protect her family, find justice for her clients and forge a new life for herself in this pause-resisting thriller.

Race Williams - the classic hard-boiled detective from the pages of Black Mask Magazine - takes on the biggest blackmailing scheme of his career. Plus a bonus Daly hard-boiled classic: Paying an Old Debt. Story number two in the Race Williams series. Carroll John Daly (1889-1958) was the creator of the first hard-boiled private eye story, predating Dashiell Hammett's first Continental Op story by several months.

When a pleasant afternoon's bicycling through Golden Gate Park with a friend ends with the revelation of threatening letters, followed by a gunshot in a mansion garden, Sabina Carpenter knows this is a case that demands her immediate and undivided attention. The questions her partner John Quincannon has to unravel are not difficult: Wrixton, a wealthy banker, has met his extortionist's first demand, but the order to pay another $5,000 is too much to face. The banker's real problem is something he doesn't want to reveal.

Jonas Watcher is a private investigator from San Francisco who has been called upon to investigate a dead man in New Orleans. It's the 1930s and the Crescent City is in turmoil. Jonas is confronted with someone from his past who opens old wounds. As he tries to get the lay of the land, Jonas encounters a number of characters who may be friend or foe. He finds himself in the bayou surrounding New Orleans facing reptiles of both the four-footed variety and the two legged kind. As his investigation continues Jason encounters Louisiana politics, bayou smugglers, and someone who wants him dead. The Case of the Bourbon Street Hustler is the second book in the series and continues a case that Jonas Watcher thought was over in San Francisco three months ago.

The time of The Circles of Odin is early September, 1929, after Skeen's case of the Daedàlus Society in July and before he discovers in November a Nazi Bund in Palo Alto, south of San Francisco, Skeen's main venue of his adventures.

After having some breathing room from his last case, which brought him up against Islamic operatives in San Francisco in The Black Stone, Cyrus Skeen and his wife take a short vacation on a luxury bus, the Pickwick Stage. But the bus is held up by gangsters. Skeen goes into action and foils the hijacking. But his heroism engenders even more problems and perils.

It is February, 1929. Cyrus Skeen is hired by an Austrian aristocrat whom Skeen calls a "One-Worlder Gadabout", Count Paul Axel Heinrich Joachim von Wormuth-Esterházy, of Vienna, to find out who is trying to kill him. He gives Skeen a list he has compiled of 20 attempts to murder him, including flowerpots are dropped from above, a bottle of poisoned schnapps is given to him in a "welcome basket", and nearly being run over by a speeding automobile.

Rafael Jones is always a little out of his depth in rural settings, but he's not just a detective, he's also undead. He can't ignore the call from the Saratoga County coroner when she mentions the bite marks found on several drowning victims during the spring and summer of 1947. However, he knows his weaknesses (sunlight, running water, and a woeful lack of country manners), so he isn't working alone. His slowly developing powers and quick wits may not be a match for something old, strong in magic, and completely cursed.

In Frankly, My Dear, the fourth in the Frank Rozzani Detective Novel series, Frank and Jonesy, private investigators, are on a case that is one of the most bizarre that they have faced. Their latest client, arrested for domestic abuse, swears that he is the victim of one of the most vengeful women on the face of the earth. Frank and Jonesy must determine if their client is telling the truth. As they investigate the case, they, again, pay a personal price for their involvement.

Gil Vine is the quick-thinking, compassionate chief security officer at the fashionable Plaza Royale Hotel. While investigating a routine disturbance complaint in the Tower apartments, Gil finds himself enmeshed in a deadly struggle for control of a fabulous fortune in oil. As always in the Gil Vine mysteries, life behind the scenes of a large hotel is painted for the listener in fascinating detail. Vine is at his best in this installment of the series as the hotel detective does his best to protect the Plaza Royale's reputation and also stop the series of murders.

Kacey Chance is a former actress turned detective. Luckily for her, acting skills come in handy during investigations. Kacey's latest assignment is to investigate a suspicious workplace accident. The victim, who worked at local hangout Rockburger, is seeking a large cash settlement. A stakeout at the victim's residence reveals nosy neighbors and colorful roommates who drop hints that nothing about this accident is quite as it appears.

Rational Scrutiny: Paradoxes and Contradictions in Detective Fiction discusses why Chess Hanrahan and Cyrus Skeen, the author's premier heroes and the chief subjects of this volume, are not only extraordinary men of action, but “intellectuals” of the first rank, as well. As Cline writes in the Preface, detective fiction, as a rule, employs both "intellectuals" and "doers".

Murder in the 11th House is the first novel in the mystery series that introduces a unique character in the annals of detective fiction. Astrological detective David Lowell gets involved in a new case thanks to his daughter, a young defense attorney who believes that a murder suspect is innocent. A judge has been murdered in a New York City parking garage, and Joanna “Johnny” Colbert, a tough and mouthy bartender, is accused of the crime. Lowell’s daughter, Melinda, believes that her client has been wrongly accused.

Discover the sleepy little hamlet of Bard's Head and meet the sleepy detectives who operate there. Join George Tewksbury and Ellery Forbes in this collection of their first five whimsical, and more-than-slightly silly, cases. George and Ellery are aided in their efforts by their elderly secretary, Ermengarde Lilliput, who offers sage advice whilst never missing a stitch in her knitting, and Officer Apricot Dorrit, a no-nonsense policewoman who is often secretly amused by their antics. Get ready to giggle at the screwball shenanigans of these slumbering sleuths!

Are you ready for twists, turns, thrills, and chills? This complete set offers Joe C. Ellis's popular Weston Wolf OBX Detective novels: Roanoke Island Murders, The Singer in the Sound, and Kitty Hawk Confidential.

Things are looking up for Mimi and Nick - that is, until a handsome cowboy walks into Mimi's office and hires her to clear him of fraud charges. When politics and horse trading collide, it spells murder, and, once again, Mimi and Nick are butting heads as Mimi is now trying to clear her client as a murder suspect. Follow the Gotcha gang on this rodeo trail to see who gets voted out, who gets bucked off, and who ends up dead.

Out of funds and longing for a sea voyage, young doctor Ralph Leslie jumps at the chance to sign aboard a luxurious millionaire's yacht as steward of the After House. His job is easy sailing until one summer night, when the dream voyage suddenly becomes a nightmare of blood and terror. One of the ship's officers is thrown overboard; another one is killed with an axe. As panic sets in on the boat, only the young doctor remains calm enough to try to solve the murders.

Private investigator Ashton Ford has special powers - powers that some call supernatural. A former naval intelligence officer who is highly knowledgeable in cryptology and philosophy, Ford will shatter your ideas of reality and take you into a mystical world of vision, intuition, and psychic truth. In Time to Time, the husband of an aging Hollywood movie star is concerned with his wife's unnatural compulsions and obsessions with UFOs, dolphins, and the paranormal. The actress is convinced that someone, somewhere in space, is calling her.