"Jack Fredrickson is one hell of a writer. This is a book that satisfies on every level." – William Kent Krueger Sweetie Fairbairn, the doyenne of Chicago society, is known for big-hearted philanthropy and magnificent soirees in her penthouse high atop one of the city's premier boutique hotels. Dek Elstrom is hired by a mysterious man in a long limousine to investigate the death of a clown. Was it suicide – or murder? What is the connection between the dead clown and Sweetie?

"Everything I want in a mystery." – Nancy Pearl, National Public Radio on A Safe Place for Dying, A Pearl Pick "Jack Fredrickson is one hell of a writer. He has an ear for dead-on dialogue, and an unerring eye for compelling pace. In Dek Elstrom, he's created an investigator with a seductive one-two punch – a delectably smart mouth and a delightfully nimble brain. Believe me, no matter how hard your heart, there's going to be a soft spot in it for Hunting Sweetie Rose. This is a book that satisfies on every level from an author you can trust to deliver." – William Kent Krueger Dek Elstrom is back. Bad things are surfacing in Rivertown, in a huge hole in a block of bungalows; in the river,...

An intriguing new mystery featuring Chicago private investigator Dek Elstrom Men are dying in Chicago. Not ordinary men, but rich men, powerful men, men who control the city. They are being murdered, quietly, skilfully. Dek Elstrom's ex-father-in-law, a major player in everything Chicago, is likely to be one of them. Amanda, Dek's ex-wife, wants him to investigate. Dek doesn't want this case – but Amanda persists, and Dek finally agrees, because that's what he always does with Amanda. He learns quickly that Amanda's father is lying. The man knows plenty and is talking about none of it. Is he about to become a victim? Or is he a killer?

A Safe Place for Dying, the first in Jack Fredrickson's highly acclaimed Dek Elstrom mystery series, was nominated for the Shamus Award for Best First Novel. Now, Chicago P.I. Dek Elstrom is back in an electrifying new mystery. A lawyer calls Dek with a fast, seven-hundred dollar proposition. A dead client named Dek to execute her will. No matter that Dek didn't know the woman. No matter, too, that the woman's estate was only worth a few hundred. Happens all the time, the lawyer said. To Dek Elstrom, broke and huddling in a cold stone turret in the middle of February, the sound of four hundred falling down his chimney is louder than his voice of reason. He agrees, heads up to a hamlet ten...

An extortion letter arrives at Crystal Waters, one of Chicago's wealthiest gated communities. It makes no specific threats, gives no instructions, demands only that $50,000 be gotten ready--chump change for an enclave where the cheapest house is worth three million. It's easy to see it as harmless--a note from a nut. Then a mansion explodes. The homeowners panic, and want it hushed up. If word gets out that a bomber is targeting Crystal Waters, their multimillion-dollar homes will become worthless, a last catastrophe for people strung out from living the good life too well. They hire Dek Elstrom to investigate. Dek Elstrom used to soar high, too, when he lived with his multimillionaire wife...

The new mayor of a small town in Illinois unearths a series of devastating secrets when he re-opens a 30-year-old murder investigation 17-year-old Betty Jo Dean was abducted and murdered thirty years ago. It took two days to find her body. She was found, fully dressed apart from her slacks, beneath a gnarled, stunted tree, shot in the back of the head. No one was ever charged with her murder. Now, following an appeal from one of his constituents, Mayor Mac Bassett has called for the case to be re-opened. But when the body is exhumed, it is revealed that the skull, found loose in the coffin, does not belong to Betty Jo. If Mac could discover why Betty Jo's head was taken, he would be one...

From Hawaii at the turn of the twentieth century to the post – Civil War frontier, from smoggy Los Angeles to the woods of Idaho, these gripping stories trace the perils and occasional triumphs of lawmen and women who put themselves in harm's way to face down the bad guys. Some of them even walk the edge of becoming bad guys themselves. In T. Jefferson Parker's "Skinhead Central," an ex-cop and his wife find unexpected menace in the idyllic setting they have chosen for their retirement. In Alafair Burke's "Winning," a female officer who is attacked in the line of duty must protect her own husband from his worst impulses. In Edward D. Hoch's "Friday Night Luck," a wanna-be cop blows his...

An anthology of stories An all-new mystery anthology edited and featuring a new story by #1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris Nighttime is the perfect time for the perfect crime. #1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris edits and contributes an all-new story-set in her Sookie Stackhouse universe-to this anthology from the Mystery Writers of America. Other authors include: Steve Brewer Dana Cameron Max Allan Collins and Mickey Spillane Barbara D'Amato Brendan DuBois Terrie Farley Moran Jack Fredrickson Parnell Hall Carolyn Hart S. W. Hubbard Toni L. P. Kelner Lou Kemp William Kent Kreuger Harley...