When the police tell a wealthy industrialist that her missing son has faked his own kidnapping, she hires Elvis Cole and Joe Pike-and Cole soon determines that it was no fake. The boy and his secret girlfriend have been taken, and are now lost in the gray and changing world of the professional border kidnappers who prey not only on innocent victims but also on one another-buying, selling, and stealing victims like commodities. Fortunately, the kidnappers...

Smarmy personals ads. Daring declarations of love. Freelance writer Jaine Austen has penned them all. But no one needs her help more than geeky, gawky Howard Murdoch. His request is simple enough: a letter proclaiming his undying love for Stacy Lawrence, a gorgeous aerobics instructor. The fact that he's never actually met the woman gives Jaine pause-yet she soon overcomes her misgivings, and the unlikely Romeo lands a date! But his triumph is short-lived....

Frank Meyer had the American dream-until the day a professional crew invaded his home and murdered everyone inside. The police think Meyer was hiding something very bad, but Joe Pike does not. With the help of Elvis Cole, Pike sets out on a hunt of his own--an investigation that quickly entangles them both in a web of ancient grudges, blood ties, blackmail, vengeance, double crosses, and cutthroat criminals.

The classic Shamus Award-winning novel in the Elvis Cole series--a "Publishers Weekly" Best Book of the Year--is back. When a wealthy entrepreneur is accused of murdering his wife, Elvis is hired to prove that a rumored dirty cop fooled around with the evidence. Reissue.

"It's everyday business when Wattles, the San Fernando Valley's top "executive crook," sets up a hit. He establishes a chain of criminals to pass along the instructions and the money, thereby ensuring that the hitter doesn't know who hired him. Then one day Wattles finds his office safe open and a single item missing: the piece of paper on which he has written the names of the crooks in the chain. When people associated with the chain begin to pop...

"There's chaos in Hollywood at the end of the New Year's Eve countdown. Working her graveyard shift, LAPD detective Renée Ballard waits out the traditional rain of lead as hundreds of revelers shoot their guns into the air. Only minutes after midnight, Ballard is called to a scene where a hardworking auto shop owner has been fatally hit by a bullet in the middle of a crowded street party. Ballard quickly concludes that the deadly bullet could not...

"Los Angeles burglar Junior Bender has a rule about never taking a job that pays too well--in the criminal underworld, if someone is offering you more money than a job is worth, someone is going to end up dead. But he's bending his rule this one time because he and his girlfriend, Ronnie, are in desperate need of cash so they can hire a top-notch kidnapper to snatch Ronnie's two-year-old son back from her evil ex. The whole thing is pretty complicated,...

Blanche Tucker longs to escape tiny Boynton, Oklahoma when dashing Graham Peyton roars into town, posing as a film producer. He convinces the naive teenager to run away with him to a glamorous new life. She makes it to Hollywood, and transforms herself into Bianca LaBelle, the reclusive star of a series of adventure films. Five years later, Peyton's remains are discovered on a Santa Monica beach. Private detective Ted Oliver is hired investigate the...