A Henry Holt mystery

"Waverly, Kieran, and Seth struggle to survive on board the New Horizon--and take down their enemies before it's too late"--Provided by the publisher. Waverly, Kieran, and Seth struggle to survive onboard the "New Horizon" and take down their enemies before it is too late. The plot contains profanity and violence. Book #3

Harvey Rozier has planned the murder carefully. Unseen, he slips out of the concert hall and sneaks home, knowing that if all goes perfectly he will have an hour to stab his wife to death. But things don’t go smoothly, and he is pursuing the bleeding woman through the kitchen when he trips over a toolbox, and finds himself face-to-face with a shocked cat burglar. George “Pitty-Pitty” Patniks had planned his crime even more thoroughly than Rozier, but was not counting on stumbling into a homicide. He escapes before Rozier can stop him—a witness to a hideous crime that he cannot report to the police. Long-suffering Chicago homicide detective Abe Lieberman suspects Rozier instantly, but cannot find enough proof to arrest him. To bring this killer to justice, he will have to find the thief who saw it all—before Pitty-Pitty Patniks’s mouth gets shut forever. Abe Lieberman - Book 04

In a posh part of Chicago’s North Side, two Trinidadian men look for someone to jump. Waiting outside an apartment building, they see a couple shivering in the cold as they make their way to their car. The Trinidadians draw guns, demand money—and quickly go too far. Shots ring out, and the muggers run. Behind them, the man is dead, and his pregnant wife lays bleeding in the street. The murder victim is the nephew of Abe Lieberman, one of the most dignified cops in Chicago homicide. When he learns of the killing, Lieberman’s calm façade cracks. As he works with his partner, Bill Hanrahan, to find the killers, Lieberman makes a pact with the devil—ready to sacrifice everything if it means finding the men who gunned his nephew down in the street. Abe Lieberman Book 03

It's been a long time since Clara Gamadge's school days, but forever young at heart she still has close ties to the old gang and her alma mater, Woolcott Academy. Springtime on campus is usually a time of winding down and wrapping up until suddenly murder and suspense are the only subjects on anyone's mind. Usually when Clara receives a note from Louise Littleton, Wolcott's youthful and sprightly headmistress, it's just to keep in touch, but this time it concerns mysterious circumstances. Margo Llewelyn, formerly an Academy charity student, now a movie star of former and fading glory, has arrived at Wolcott's doorsteps in desperate straits. In a panic, she begs Louise to accept her three little girls as boarding students so she can immediately get out of the country. Louise has encountered parents anxious to part with their children before but this seemed especially odd. When a dead body breaks up commencement ceremonies it's time for Clara Gamadge to put the pieces together. What misfortune had caused Margo's shining star to sink so low? Would more blood tarnish Wolcott's ivy-covered walls? Only a super sleuth like Clara could sift through the avarice, the malice and the motives to solve a murder like this and save the good name of her beloved Wolcott Academy too.

Clara Gamadge puts down the phone with a tremor of excitement. Only a year ago that call would have come to her husband, gifted sleuth Henry Gamadge. Now Henry is dead, and Clara is summoned to deal with the latest convulsion in an old family tragedy. Haunted by the never-explained disappearance fifty years ago of her lovely daughter, Ellen, Clara's Aunt May ignores a kindly anonymous letter advising her to let Ellen rest, or live, in peace - and suddenly dies. And so begins Clara's first solo case, a tragic, twisting tale that winds far into the past - back to Prohibition, bitter family feuds, secret love affairs, and a cherished, laughing girl.

As a balmy and leisurely summer at their beach house draws to a close, Clara, Sadd, and the rest of the Gamadge family savor the tang of salt air and the squish of sand between their toes. Their blissful tranquillity is shattered, however, when Armand Evers, a man whom Clara and Sadd knew in their youth, suddenly reappears after forty years with a strange tale to tell and a prediction of his own murder. Evers' story is clouded with shadows from the past and is full of family intrigues and hints of illegitimate heirs. When his prophecy is tragically fulfilled and he is found dead in a New York City hotel, Clara and company find themselves reluctantly drawn into a tangled web of stolen inheritances and switched identities. Was the dead man Armand, or was it his nearly identical cousin, the unstable and spendthrift Boyd? When Rachael, another member of the Evers' clan and a dear friend of Clara's, is also threatened, Clara flies to Ireland to catch a rogue. But as she investigates, she begins to suspect the murderer is not working alone and fears that the accomplice is closer to home. Clara must play a dangerous game of cat and mouse with the killer until she can force him to reveal his hand - and she must do it before another old friend dies.

Somewhere in Israel Near the Jordan Border, 1973: On a desert road outside a small Israeli town, two Muslim families ride home in a battered van. The children joke and play. The adults argue about money, and Ali Mohammed drives nervously. The night is dark. Suddenly, the windshield of the van shatters. Conversation ceases abruptly as an automatic weapon peppers the careening vehicle, which turns on its side and skids noisily along the road. A lone Jewish man advances, carrying an automatic weapon. There is a burst of gunfire and shouting and the advancing man goes down. Ali goes down. From behind the van, a small child runs crying to her murdered father. Looking up at another figure who stands in front of her, she cannot yet understand the power of the centuries-old hate she has inherited. . Chicago, Illinois, 1995: Chicago police detective Abe Lieberman is reminded just how deep the roots of hate and revenge can go when the local temple to which he and his wife belong is vandalized. Suspicion quickly falls on both militant Jewish and Muslim groups who oppose the temple's moderate stance on Palestine. But it's also clear that local skinheads are involved, and that the rampage that led to the deaths of three young Muslims has only just begun. Lieberman is surrounded by the endless brutality of the urban frontierfrom angry Arab, Israeli, and neo-Nazi youths on the one hand to ruthless Korean extortionists on the other. Defending his faith and his community, he soon discovers that forces beyond his control may tear apart a piece of his world even closer to home.

Barry Lockwood is a lucky guy, or so it seems. He's found himself in a fresh relationship with Elizabeth Bauer, a lovely and charming journalism student, young enough to be his granddaughter and she's craving commitment. It seems so right but Anna Pittman smells something fishy. Twenty years after divorcing Barry, she still has a knack for ruining his good times. She suspects that this young lass is barking up the wrong tree. Then there is Dollfuss Moltke, Beth's shadowy, omnipresent companion, complete with a beautiful face and a secretive soul. Anna's old school chum Clara Gamadge thinks Anna is simply making a tempest in a teacup. But when Anna shows up dead, Clara's investigative prowess rushes to life. Everyone seems to think Anna's death an accident, but Clara wasn't born yesterday. What started as jealous suspicion unravels a perplexing path of matrimonial mischief, cloaked clues, and a ghastly seductive gold digger. Can Clara follow up the trail before nuptial vows produce another victim?