Showing results by publisher "Phoenix BookS" in Women Sleuths

Intelligent, tough, beautiful, and sole heir to a billion-dollar fortune, Elizabeth suddenly finds herself head of an empire after her father mysteriously dies. Surrounded by cash-hungry family members, the young heiress fights to save the family business. And after narrowly escaping death, she realizes that someone is determined to kill her. Unsure of who she can trust, Elizabeth must figure out who the assassin is before it's too late.

Hanson died quickly—with a knife in his back. Carole was next—covered with acid and tortured to death. Now it's Judd's turn—a New York pschoanalyst, he'd known them both. Two faceless executioners on a murderous mission, searching for a secret which is unknown to Judd. Not safe at home or at work, Judd feels his professional grip slipping while he faces constant threat of imminent attack. To whom can he ultimately turn?

As the world is on the brink of mutual destruction between the East and the West, Mary Ashley—a bright, young political science professor—is appointed U.S. Ambassador to an Iron Curtain country. Her husband dies in a suspicious car crash, and Mary becomes the target of a mysterious murder plot by unseen and powerful enemies. Thrust from her comforting life in Kansas, she finds herself lost amongst the political turmoil in a foreign country where she is seen as the enemy, and no one is to be trusted.

Hanson died quickly—with a knife in his back. Carole was next—tortured to death. Now Judd Stevens, a successful Manhattan psychoanalyst, must face a horrific prospect: someone is trying to kill him and he is being treated as the prime suspect. As two faceless executioners on a murderous mission continue their search for an unknown secret, Judd feels his professional grip slipping. To whom can he turn? To the sharp-witted private eye he hired? To the two policemen watching, one with undisguised hostility? To his beautiful and mysterious new client who has taken hold of his heart?

Anna has been assigned a three-week posting on Georgia's isolated Cumberland Island. Despite the breathtaking natural setting, Anna finds time weighing heavily as she works tedious fire pre-suppression duty. Her boring routine is shattered when a sudden plane crash in the inland palmetto thickets calls her and the other members of the fire crew to action. When Anna and the crew investigate, they discover the plane was sabotaged. Suspicions smolder over the accident which killed both the pilot and his passenger, Cumberland's lone law enforcement ranger.

An adorable crackpot inventor has developed his latest idea—run-proof, snag-proof pantyhose—just in time for a Miami pantyhose convention. If he can just raise $1.1 million over the convention weekend, he can save the housing project he shares with other retirees from getting sold out from under them. But an industry queen is determined to keep his invention off the market—any way she can.

Crime just seems to follow lottery-winning couple Willy and Alvirah Meehan wherever they go. But now Alvirah can sleuth to her heart's content! In this collection of stories, the couple is targeted and pursued by ex-cons after winning the lottery in "Plumbing for Willy," they discover the body of actress Fiona Winter in their New York apartment in "The Body in the Closet," and they help Cynthia Lathem solve the murder of her stepfather in "Death at the Cape." The aura of suspense remains sky-high in two additional stories, "Stowaway" and "Milk Run."

The hardworking single mother of young daughter, Joanna Brady still feels the acute pain of loneliness and loss, the hole that was left in her heart when her policeman husband was murdered. But Sheriff Brady is the law in Cochise County, and murder has shattered the small town's fragile peace. A local gun dealer has died violently, and his stock of high-powered weapons has been cleared out. When two more slayings follow soon after, suspicion falls upon rancher Alton Hosfield.

What would it take to lure a serious young newswoman from a respectable New England paper to the most notorious supermarket tabloid in America? The call of journalistic adventure? How about a promise of a salary that's triple what she's making? En route to her new job at the Weekly Galaxy, Sara Joslyn stumbles across a bloody corpse in a Buick Riviera. A big story? Not at this paper. The problem is compounded when the dead man vanishes, Buick and all.

In the expert hands of two of the mystery world's top storytellers, being a housewife takes on a whole new meaning. These original stories explore the dark side of the housewife psyche and are guaranteed to delight. But be cautioned: These stories—"GDMFSOB" by Nevada Barr (author of the Anna Pigeon series) and "Acid Test" by Sara Paretsky (author of the V.I. Warshawski novels)—are meant to be listened to alone while sipping a glass of wine.

Sunny Randall is a Boston P.I. and former cop, a college graduate, an aspiring painter, a divorcée, and the owner of a miniature bull terrier named Rosie. Hired by a wealthy family to locate their teenage daughter, Sunny is tested by the parents' preconceived notion of what a detective should be. With the help of underworld contacts, she tracks down the runaway Millicent, who has turned to prostitution. Rescuing her from a vicious pimp, Sunny finds herself the unlikely custodian of a difficult teenager when the girl refuses to return to her family.

Nuala Anne McGrail has twice before amazed her faithful suitor, Dermot Coyne, with her psychic ability to "reach back" to the past and discover a wrong that needs righting. With their wedding only a few weeks away, Dermot's not a bit surprised when, while paying respects to his grandparents in Chicago's Mount Carmel Cemetery, Nuala points to the grave of the famous bootlegger Jimmy "Sweet Rolls" Sullivan .

Don't toss out the cake and candles just yet. Philip Roth, who, among other notable achievements, changed the way Americans laugh about masturbation, celebrates his birthday on March 19th. Check out: I Married a Communist and Operation Shylock.

Regan Reilly, is a young PI who has come from L.A. to ski and celebrate with her parents and their rich Aspen friends. It ends up being a busman's holiday for Regan, who gets swept up in art theft intrigue after some multimillion-dollar paintings are stolen from her parent's friends. The thieves continue to elude capture, but Regan is on their trail. She's up agaist time, though, as the clock ticks down to Aspen's biggest party of the season—at which the town's most valuable painting of all will be unveiled.

Spenser will do anything for his long-time love, Susan, but finds himself with more than he bargained for when he agrees to help Susan's ex-husband fight sexual harassment charges. Spenser soon discovers he has more questions than answers as a body is found, a shadowy mob connection surfaces, and the P.I. is fighting a two-front war against some very bad men and an increasingly unpredictable Susan.

When Athena disappeared from St. Polycarp's College at Oxford, her friends assumed she had run away - to hide from her overbearing, wealthy Greek family, or even to marry some unacceptable young man. To their shock, they find out at their 10-year reunion that her body has been discovered in an excavation. Private investigator Regan Reilly, Athena's former college roommate, is determined to track down her friend's killer.

Separated from friends and family and haunted by personal demons, park ranger Anna Pigeon finds solace in the quiet ruins of the Anasazi civilization of Colorado's Mesa Verde. But the rugged beauty of the park and the mystery of the Anasazi are cruelly overshadowed by danger and death. Lately, visitors to Mesa Verde have been bringing home more than photos…they're also carrying a strange—and deadly—disease. In order to prevent more deaths, Anna Pigeon must find the very human source of an evil wind.

A brutal serial killer known as "Dead Eyes" is lurking in the backyard of the famed Virginia FBI Profiling Unit. Despite the gifted profiling skills of Special Agent Karen Vail, the psychopath is always one step ahead with uncanny knowledge of the FBI's detailed strategy of pursuit. Threatening to derail the investigation and her career is Vail's contentious divorce from an abusive husband and an ugly custody battle. As Vail fights to find the killer before he murders more young women, she must battle forces determined to bring her down.

Heroine and renowned FBI profiler Karen Vail returns in an explosive thriller set against the backdrop of California's wine country. Hoping to find solace from the demons that haunt her, Vail makes her first trip to the Napa Valley. But shortly after arriving, a victim is found in the deepest reaches of an exclusive wine cave, the work of an extraordinarily unpredictable serial killer.

Beautiful, smart, and cool-headed P.I. Sunny Randall is on the road, charged with protecting Melanie Joan Hall, an author on a book signing tour from a stalker—Melanie's psychotherapist ex-husband. After an incident that leaves the author unconscious and the ex bloodied, Sunny realizes things aren't as innocuous as they may seem. To crack the case, she enters therapy, putting her life at risk and discovering some disturbing truths about herself.