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MYSTERY/SUSPENSE

Herda, D. J.

Two Mules for McCandless Harry Block is just an average P.I. except for one thing. He craves adventure. He gets just that and more in this true story of murder, lust, torture, and resolution. When at last he uncovers the truth about the son of the California mobster who hired him to clear his son's name, he finds himself scrambling for his very life.

A breathtaking tale made all the more exciting by the fact that it's based on a true story. The action is non-stop, and the characters will live in your memory for a lifetime.

"This is Dennis Hopper in Doublecrossed times ten, the scenes of Block being tortured in a Mexican jail are absolutely haunting. It's a sure winner at the book stores, as well as at the box office." - Don Bacue, Editor-in-Chief, International Features Syndicate

***

"MISTRESS CARLOTTA"

Three-Book Series

Bk. 1 - Bound for Carlotta When Dean Janus stumbles across an Internet promotion for a professional Domme, his curiosity is piqued. By the time he decides to check it out, he is already ensnared in an ever-widening web of drugs, money laundering, BDSM, and murder. Only the tenacious love of a woman nearly ten years younger can save him. But is that love strong enough to go head-to-head with Mistress Carlotta? And can Dean overcome the prejudices he has against his young, headstrong lover? His very life may depend upon it!

Bk. 2 - Carlotta’s Revenge When Domme Mistress Carlotta escapes from prison, Dean Janus bears the brunt of her wrath. Taken into bondage to a small adobe outside Ensenada, he is broken of his will and forced to do her bidding. He returns to the states, where under orders from Carlotta he drugs and kidnaps his own fiancé, and returns with her to Carlotta's adobe, where she too is eventually turned into a devoted slave. But when M.C. introduces a young peasant girl to become Lynn's charge, Dean turns the tables on the Domme and sets the stage for a supercharged ending.

Bk. 3 - The Unbroken Mistress Carlotta is released from prison and rehabilitated from a life of depravity and sado-masochism. In atonement for her sins, she agrees to help set up a home for abused submissives—men and women. But the temptations prove too strong, and before long, Carlotta has fallen back into her evil ways with a hauntingly frightening twist. She breaks, then sells her slaves to the underground, where they are forced into the alternative-sex trade or made to perform in alternative snuff flicks. When Lynne turns up dead, Dean turns up the heat and presses authorities to take up the chase. As the trail turns cold, he springs into action, enlisting the aid of Lynne’s younger sister—who turns out to be more than Carlotta can resist!

***

"HYMIE STIEHL"

Four-Book Series

Bk. 1 - Stiehl on the Loose - The Death and Life of Hymie Stiehl When Yiddish Bulldog Hymie Stiehl learns that his friend, Jungle Jim Alavera of the Chicago White Sox, has disappeared, he knows he has to act fast. Realizing that Alavera is still alive but in great danger, Stiehl and his young, rakish college-professor sidekick seek to locate him before the Mob does. But when bodies begin turning up like dead flies at a bad delicatessen, Stiehl calls upon the local D.A. and the members of the venerable Twelfth Precinct to step in to help solve the case ... and very nearly ends up a statistic, himself.

Bk. 2 - Courting Stiehl As Hymie Stiehl and sidekick D. J. Shanahan arrive in Trinidad, Colorado, to ensnare whoever sent Stiehl's close contractor friend to prison, Stiehl has a revelation. He sets the kid up as a contractor to work underground. But when the "kid" gets charged with passing bad checks, contractor fraud, and finally murder, things get ugly. Stiehl goes underground while the kid bails out, and the two of them meet to uncover the worst in human society--from a dirty District Court Judge right on down to drug-pushing, drug-crazed local vice cops gone wild.

Things look bleak for D.J.'s upcoming trial when suddenly Stiehl has a revelation. Halfway through the preliminary hearing to bind the kid over for murder one, Stiehl shows up with three Federal officers--and the kid gets a change of venue ... much to the chagrin of the judge. When the judge goes to step down and the FBI clasps him in cuffs, he pulls a gun from beneath his robes and shoots his own bailiff in the head. As the judge is hauled away, Stiehl reveals the real savior behind the scenes in an ending as touching as it is creative.

Bk. 3 - Stiehl Stalkings A Caribbean cruise goes sour when a wealthy German industrialist turns up dead during an attempted robbery--murdered with his own gun. The plot thickens when Yiddish Bulldog Hymie Stiehl learns that the man's stepson had lost more than $20 thousand at the tables the night before. The man's wife, too, stands to gain financially from her husband's death, although she voluntarily takes a polygraph test and passes with ease. When links to a Belizean woman emerge, Hymie grows restless. The deceased industrialist had been having an affair, and his wife found out. What better peg to the murder than a spurned wife? But when the wife's own son is killed, all eyes fall elsewhere, and it's up to Hymie to unravel the most bizarre and twisted tale of murder and chicanery ever.

Bk. 4 - Stiehl by Default Ronald Deus has an ax to grind. In fact, he has several. The sharpest is reserved for his beloved mother—the only person standing between Deus and a fortune in family stocks and bonds. But when he takes aim at committing the perfect crime, little does he realize that it’s he, himself, who is standing in his own crosshairs.

"NICK AND NORA"

Three-Book Series (Cozy)

Bk. 1 - Backside Blues Nick and Nora Cavender set out to invest in a racehorse destined for the Kentucky Derby. But when the horse’s jockey turns up dead—and his jockey friend, and the track steward, and the trainer—they know they're onto one helluva story. Who will be next? Nora very nearly finds out ... the hard way. It isn't long before the society couple realize they're in for the crime of their lives.

Pre-Publication Review: This is the best racing mystery I’ve ever read. It’s pure dynamite, a page-turner from the first to the last. The relationship between the characters is supercharged. And why wouldn't it be, with Nora Cavender, herself, the great granddaughter of Dashiell Hammett's even greater Thin Man, Nick Charles. Highly recommended! – Don Bacue, Editor-in-Chief, International Features Syndicate

Bk. 2 - Stakeout When one-time private eye Nicky Cavender and his reporter wife Nora take a busman's holiday skiing in Banff National Park, they soon find themselves searching for a missing Canadian heiress ... and her jewelry ... and her hotel room suite! All vanished into thin air.

As hotel officials struggle to learn what happened to room 432, Nicky devises an ingenious plan for a reverse stakeout of the grottos outside Banff's hot springs to uncork the truth. But before long, he discovers it is he who is being stalked in one of the most creative story lines ever.

Bk. 3 - Chameleon When Nora's Chicago Daily Tribune editor sends her to the U.K. to cover the Irish Darby, she soon learns that derby day is not without its inherent risks. Within hours of landing, she finds herself the target of a mysterious stalker. Nick lays plans and apprehends the stalker, who turns out to be anything but! When Nora disappears, Nicky faces a blank slate for the first time in his life--why was she kidnapped? Is she unharmed? Where is she being held? What clues can their new Welsh Corgi puppy provide? And are the locals right when they claim that only the Irish moors hold the answer ... and the answer is death!

***

Kaplan, Bruce

Seeds When writer Michael Baird arrives in town for rest and relaxation after suffering a personal trauma, he walks into a nightmare that goes from bad to worse. Soon, he finds his sanity hanging by a thread. Against his doctor's advice, he launches an investigation into strange happenings and quickly concludes that the town is in the grip of greed, murder, corruption, and blackmail – and perhaps something beyond this world.

Amid the carnage, Michael finds love. But can it survive when all else around him is failing? And what about the strange little boy and his friends? Are they the key that can unlock the truth behind the horror?