Lamar Public Library

Jonas Piedmont Beaumont has had it rough all his life. Raised by his hardworking, unmarried mother and disowned as a youth by his grandparents. He learned at a very early age how cruel life can be. Two marriages, a treacherous battle with the bottle, assorted midlife and moral dilemmas, and a few decades as a homicide detective haven't convinced him otherwise. For his gruesome caseload continually reinforces those ugly childhood lessons about the...

At first, the cops had little to go on -- a paycheck stub from Starlight Productions, a matchbook from the Edgewater Inn. Oh, and a body. Definitely male and decidedly dead, covered with strange little puncture wounds. Then they showed Beau what they had found in the blackberry bush. A woman's cobalt-blue shoe with a five-inch stiletto heel caked with blood and hair. "We have a bingo," the cop said. Detective J.P. Beaumont had his corpse. He had his...

Seattle police officer Tracy Crosswhite lost her sister Sarah over 20 years ago, and she has never forgiven herself. With no corpse discovered, there was still enough evidence to convict the man thought responsible for Sarah's disappearance. Now a body has been found and Tracy learns the remains are of her sister. Tracy has had her doubts about the guilt of the man behind bars, and she's absolutely sure there is a murderer still loose.

Friendship comes at a cost. For beautiful Mary-Ann Walker, who struggled with the challenges of a difficult family history, that cost proves to be her life. With Mary-Ann's past as its only guideline, the Seattle homicide unit must delve into the relationships between a misguided young woman and her family, friends, and lover. Let the psychological duels begin.

In the heat of the Arizona desert, a raging fire pushed temperatures to a deadly degree, and one woman is left to burn. Pulled naked and barely breathing from the fire, the victim has no idea who she is, let alone who would do this to her - or why. In her hospital bed she drifts in and out of consciousness, her only means of communicating a blink of the eye. And then an angel appears. Misguidedly known around town as the "Angel of Death," Sister Anselm...

The plot revolves around the reappearance of David Hayes, with whom Liz Boldt had an affair and who embezzled millions from the bank where she is a high-ranking officer. Hayes is out of prison and needs Liz to access the bank's mainframe if he is to recover the embezzled millions, now dangling in cyberspace, and avoid the wrath of the Russian mob. In order to find the money and keep Liz out of harm's way, Boldt must balance the contradictory roles...

"Detective Tracy Crosswhite has agreed to look into the disappearance of investigative reporter Lisa Childress. Solving the cold case is an obsession for Lisa's daughter, Anita. So is clearing the name of her father, a prime suspect who became a pariah. After twenty-five years, all Anita wants is the truth -- no matter where it leads. For Tracy, that means reopening the potentially explosive investigations Lisa was following on the dark night she...

"Returning from an extended leave in her hometown of Cedar Grove, Detective Tracy Crosswhite finds herself reassigned to the Seattle PD's cold case unit. As the protective mother of an infant daughter, Tracy is immediately drawn to her first file: the abduction of a five-year-old girl whose parents, embattled in a poisonous divorce, were once prime suspects. While reconstructing the days leading up to the girl's disappearance, Tracy is brought into...

The last time homicide detective Tracy Crosswhite was in Cedar Grove, it was to see her sister's killer put behind bars. Now she's returned for a respite and the chance to put her life back in order for herself, her attorney husband, Dan, and their new daughter. But tragic memories soon prove impossible to escape. Dan is drawn into representing a local merchant whose business is jeopardized by the town's revitalization. And Tracy is urged by the local...