K. K. Beck

Super-bankable, way-hot movie star Nadia Wentworth has found her dream role: the all-powerful, eternally beautiful Kali-Ra, Queen of Doom--one of pulp fiction's most famous characters. Even better, no one stands between Nadia owning all the rights to the Kali-Ra novels. As far as Nadia's assistant, Melanie, can tell, Kali-Ra's creator, dissolute 1920s novelist Valerian Ricardo, left no heirs. So it seems that no power on earth can stop the return of Kali-Ra--or prevent Nadia from gaining untold profits and worldwide mega-stardom. . . .That is, until a cast of mysterious characters descends on Nadia's exotic Beverly Hills mansion--putting the level-headed Melanie in a scenario weirder than anything even she's ever seen. Nick Iversen, Valerian's great-great-nephew from Minneapolis, wants the truth about his dubious heritage. The writer's wacked-out widow, Lila, hungers to spread the "divine power" of his words and control his new fortune on the earthly plane. Haplessly sleazy lawyer Quentin Smith is out to claim the profits of Kali-Ra for his unscrupulous employer. And the mysterious Callie might have a more sinister connection to Valer

Alice Jordan's dentist husband has just run off with his hygienist and she is desperate for a job. Because Alice has done some volunteer work for the symphony, she manages to talk herself into a job as a commissioned ad rep for a Seattle classical music station. The station was kept alive by its wealthy owner for many years, but her heirs are fighting about the future of the station. KLEG is so mismanaged that Aliceis predecessor Joe Costello hadnit even bothered to resign. He just disappeared and no one, including his unhappy wife, found it odd that he just drifted away. Cryptic messages had been left on his answering machine and his few accounts had been neglected. A week into the job, Joeis body is found inside a convertible sofa in a storage area. Alice finds that Joeis death by misadventure is only the beginning of the mystery.

What would you expect at a seafood convention in Seattle? A lot of cold fish? Certainly not a red-hot murder . . . and another hopeless case for detective Jane da Silva to solve. Jane--who can only collect on her trust fund by investigating for her family's nonprofit Bureau for Righting Wrongs--is broke and back to singing the blues (professionally). She's belting out "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" in the convention's hotel lounge when a young woman turns up murdered in the hospitality suite bathtub. Is this a crime of passion among fish lovers? Jane quickly agrees to help the girl's grieving parents investigate their daughter's life and death. Now she's knee-deep in slippery suspects and in a stew about following the most attractive one, a Shetland Islands salmon farmer, back to his castle. But in for a penny, in for a pound (of cold smoked, of course), she's about to sniff out a bizarre secret that can rock the salmon industry and reel in a killer . . . or a lover. She just hopes they're not the same man.

A mousy, secretive researcher at a news-clipping service who recently won $20,000 on Jeopardy! is missing. Who is Irene March? That's the answer (in the form of a question) facing investigator Jane da Silva, who can collect on her eccentric uncle's vast legacy only when she solves a mystery that's stumped everyone else.When Jane places a large "Have you seen this woman?" ad in the Seattle paper, she gets intriguing responses from a rodeo queen, a dying child, and a disgraced church deacon . . . leads that send Jane east of the Cascades. By the time she gets to Electric City, the site of more violence, she realizes that Irene March's placid exterior shielded a cunning, even ruthless soul. And a deadly dangerous game that could have people asking, "Who killed Jane da Silva?"

It's been a long time since she solved her first "hopeless case" and Jane da Silva is running out of money. Her Uncle Harold's bizarre will provides her with a handsome income if she successfully runs his Foundation for Righting Wrongs and pleases its crusty old board of directors. Through Calvin Mason, the young attorney who befriends her, she finds a new ¿hopeless case. A real hopeless case. Kevin Shea is a teenage drug addict convicted of holding up a pharmacy and killing the druggist's wife. Kevin is such a low-life even his mother is convinced he's guilty and glad he's behind bars. Now it appears there was a witness to the murders, a young woman whose prescription was being filled at the time of the murder. The witness might be able to prove that Kevin is innocent of the murder. Jane learns that four women with the same name all live in remote areas of Vancouver Island, one of them the missing witness. There's someone else who wants to find the missing witness too, someone who isn't afraid to turn to murder when Jane gets too close for comfort. Jane's breath-taking and dangerous romp through the northern wilderness leads her to the Tip Top Club, a stripper bar, where she faces down the clever killer¿and wraps up a satisfactory hopeless case, proving that everyone deserves justice.

From mysteryfile.com: When a young professor at the University of Washington (in what department I don’t think it’s ever said) is unjustly denied tenure. he’s forced to look for work in the real world. Luckily his Uncle Cosmo has just won the lottery, and he helps his nephew out. With full custody of his auto-repair shop. It’s hardly the gold mine of opportunity he envisioned, as you can imagine, and when the body of his former department chairman is found on the premises, it turns into outright disaster.

The Brockhursts' Easter week house party was taking an ominous turn. A sinister seance... Madame Sophie's usually brilliant mediumistic performance was spoiled by a sudden blackout and eerie, unexplained screams and knockings. A missing butler... Chan, the perfect Chinese butler, suddenly was no longer there. Neither was his silver salver. The wrong body in the mummy case... And when pretty Iris Cooper's beau, Clarence Brockhurst, took her upstairs to meet his mummy, they found that 5,000-year-old Ra-Hotep had been ousted from his sarcophagus by the dead body of a scantily clad young woman. Someone at the Brockhursts' palatial California estate that beautiful spring week in 1928 had committed the perfect crime -- without a weapon, without a motive. Was it, as Madame Sophie insisted, the mummy's curse? Or a cold, clever killer on the prowl?

The "Lux" series continues with the third installment of this riveting paranormal YA series. No one is like Daemon Black. When he set out to prove his feelings for Katy, he wasn't fooling around. Doubting him isn't something she'll do again and now that they've made it through the rough patches, well, there's a lot of spontaneous combustion going on. But even he can't protect his family from the danger of trying to free those they loved. With help coming from the most unlikely source and Adam's death still lingering with those who loved him, friends will become the deadliest of enemies and the villains will no longer be clear. When each step they take in discovering the truth puts them in the path of the secret organization responsible torturing and testing hybrids, the more Katy realizes there is no end to what she's capable of. They won't turn back, even if the outcome will shatter their worlds forever.

"Affable young parking valet Tyler Benson, a master of bad timing, is accidentally involved in cases of auto theft and murder on the lot at Alba, an upscale Seattle restaurant. There's a body in a parked car, and someone shooting at tech zillionaire Scott Duckworth. Mysterious Italian beauty Flavia Torcelli and even Tyler's spectacularly unsuccessful dad seem somehow connected to the crime wave. The more Tyler tries to sort things out, the more the police are convinced he's the guilty party. Oh, and a collection of inept but homicidal Russian mafiosi seems to be after him, too"--back cover.

Jane da Silva knows a Cole Porter tune and a silky voice will only carry you so far through the urbane cabarets of Europe. So when the young widow's "eccentric" Uncle Harold dies, she jets back to the States to claim the fortune she dearly needs to ransom her Visa card. Unfortunately, Jane finds her inheritance conditional and her situation critical. It seems Uncle Harold and his old-codger cronies are part of a secret society dedicated to aiding and abetting offbeat lost causes, and Jane must carry on her uncle's "work" if she expects to see anything resembling a windfall. But just how far will the chic expatriate go when her "hopeless case" forces her to mingle with a sleaze-ball lawyer, a scheming psychiatrist, a sinister New Age cult, a stone-cold corpse--and a ruthless murderer?