Operation Snow Queen

Operation Snow Queen
Author: Colin Campbell
Publisher: Down & Out Books
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2024-02-05
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

“You could well be the worst typist in the Corps. Which is a shame because you could have been one of the best soldiers I ever trained.” Sgt Hopkins looked at Pte Grant. “Being good at weapons drills and unarmed combat isn’t everything. But what you’ve done today. That’s a different matter.” “What have I done today?” “The number one rule of any soldier, combat, clerk or engineer. What every soldier learns. Is that you don’t fight for your government, your queen or your country. You fight for the man beside you. You help dig his trench. You watch his back. And you throw yourself on the grenade to save him.” “I didn’t throw myself on a grenade.” “You ruined your career and your future for the man beside you at Waterloo Station. I hope he appreciates what you’ve done.” 3BAPD, Bracht, Germany Before Snake Pass saw Jim Grant sent to America, and before Jamaica Plain saw Grant recruited by Boston PD, and even before the Black Hawk Down incident when he was in the British Army. Before all of that there was Operation Snow Queen. With only two years’ service, Grant is posted to Germany after a runaway suitcase at Waterloo Station breaks a civilian passenger’s leg. He replaces a Company Clerk who lost his head in an accident, and a smuggling ring that doesn’t want him. Following an explosion at the Ammunition Depot, and a court martial in Dusseldorf, Grant is assigned to a training exercise in Bavaria. A place where landslides and falling off a mountain are the least of his worries. Critical Acclaim for Colin Campbell: “Very real. And very good.” —Lee Child “No one writes better action sequences than Campbell.” —Dana King “There’s nothing soft about Campbell’s writing. If you enjoy your crime fiction hard-boiled, the Jim Grant series is a must read.” —Bruce Robert Coffin, author of the Detective Byron series “A cop with a sharp eye, keen mind, and a lion’s heart.” —Reed Farrel Coleman “Campbell writes smart, rollercoaster tales with unstoppable forward momentum and thrilling authenticity.” —Nick Petrie “Grim and gritty and packed with action.” —Kirkus Review “The pages fly like the bullets, fistfights and one-liners that make this one of my favorite books of the year. Top stuff!” —Matt Hilton “An excellent story well told. A mixture of The Choirboys meets Harry Bosch.” —Michael Jecks “Sets up immediately and maintains a breakneck pace throughout. Its smart structure and unrelenting suspense will please Lee Child fans.” —Library Journal Review “This is police procedural close-up and personal. A strong debut with enough gritty real-ism to make your eyes water, and a few savage laughs along the way.” —Reginald Hill

Christmas at Miller & Rhoads

Christmas at Miller & Rhoads
Author: Donna Strother Deekens
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 167
Release: 2009-10-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1614234647

The Christmas season is a time for traditions and, in Richmond, one particular custom reigned supreme: a family outing to Miller & Rhoads department store. A Christmas outing to Miller & Rhoads department store revealed thousands of smiling faces waiting to enter the kingdom of Santaland- an enchanted world marked by glittering snow and intricate train displays. From visits to area hospitals to a young man who demanded only a box of raisins, former Snow Queen Donna Strother Deekens shares her touching and humorous holiday memories from her twenty years in the gown. Kids from one to ninety-two will enjoy reminiscing with characters like the elves, Bruce the Spruce and, of course, Miller & Rhoads' legendary real Santa. Discover behind-the-scenes drama and learn firsthand what it was like to partake in this unforgettable event.

Deception Specialist

Deception Specialist
Author: John Shepphird
Publisher: Down & Out Books
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2024-04-15
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

Rooting out deception is Jack O’Shea’s stock-in-trade. On the road to redemption from his criminal past, reformed-swindler-turned-private-eye Jack O’Shea investigates a strange death at a shadowy Northern California mountain college—a “visa mill” with clandestine ties to Silicon Valley. Accompanied by his retired racing greyhound, Jack discovers the college is built on top of an abandoned gold mine. Dark secrets lie below. As he investigates the suspicious death, Jack’s prior sins come back to haunt. He suspected one day there’d be a knock on his door. Deception may be his specialty but not everything is as it appears. Jack O’Shea was first introduced in a series of short stories published in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. The debut won the Shamus Award presented by the Private Eye Writers of America. The second in the series was a finalist for Bouchercon World Mystery Convention’s Anthony Award. Critical Acclaim for Deception Specialist: “I’ve always been a sucker for a conman, and it’s a joy to be taken in by reformed grifter Jack O’Shea as he turns the tables on a murderous conspiracy.” —Dennis Tafoya, author of Dope Thief “Won’t get fooled again, not with Jack O’Shea on the case. Master con man turned PI, O’Shea isn’t exactly on the side of the angels, but he’s our kind of rogue.” —Reed Farrel Coleman, New York Times bestselling author of Sleepless City “A good, old-fashioned mystery thriller powered by a completely original and compelling protagonist, John Shepphird’s Deception Specialist speeds along at a breakneck pace while also tugging at your emotions. I read it in one sitting.” —David Housewright, Edgar Award-winning author of In A Hard Wind “Jack O’Shea used to con people, but now he investigates on their behalf. It takes one to know one and he never misses a trick. He’s got a scar on his face and one on his soul. Anytime he finds himself in over his head, he fights to rise. Deception Specialist is two stories in one and both will catch you holding your breath.” —Jeffery Hess, author of Pascagoula Run, the Beachhead trilogy, No Salvation, and Scar Tissue “Scammers, schemers, and scoundrels are no match for former con man-turned-private eye Jack O'Shea. This Deception Specialist navigates a murderous conspiracy while confronting the ghosts of his swindling past in this edge-of-your-seat page turner.” —Steve Jankowski, author of Below the Line “Tragedy turns a former conman into Shepphird’s Deception Specialist: A force for good in a world gone murderously bad.” —Lawrence Maddox, author of Fast Bang Booze

An Only Child

An Only Child
Author: Les Roberts
Publisher: Down & Out Books
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2024-02-12
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

Russell Reinhart, a well-known author of private eye novels, is released from the Illinois State Prison in Joliet after serving seven years for the involuntary manslaughter of his wife. He returns to Chicago, welcomed home by his top-flight attorney who tucked away all his millions so no one could get hold of them while he was incarcerated, and rented him an elegant apartment in the Near North neighborhood, half a block from Lake Michigan. Reinert was an only child, adopted when an infant, and now he has no one to whom he can turn. His release from prison is reported by the local papers, and he’s contacted by a man he’s never heard of named Cole Cabot. A few years earlier, Cabot had married Reinert’s extra-curricular girlfriend, Aubrey, who has suddenly gone missing. Russ pleads he’s no private eye but just writes fiction about them, but worries his ex-lover has disappeared, so agrees to take on the case. He learns Aubrey was also the mistress of one of the world’s richest men in America, Gaylord Ogilvie, at the same time she was with him. Having investigative trouble, he is helped by the young son of a man who met while he was in prison, a huge, half-illiterate black man named Denver Tolliver, who saved his life behind bars several times. Denver was locked up for life after killing a police officer, but his college-student son is brilliant loyal, intelligent and wise. Butting heads with Ogilvie and his minions, Russ also falls heads-over-heels in love with Cassidy Hammond, who he met while taking a Michigan Avenue Beach run for the first time in seven years. His adjustment to new freedom makes life more difficult than he’d ever imagined. When he runs into danger that might turn permanent, he hadn’t forgotten how Denver Tolliver had taught him to prison-fight, and he eventually learns he’s not that much alone as he thought he was. The first words of this book are identical to the last words in the book, too: “I am an only child…”

Geisha Confidential

Geisha Confidential
Author: Mark Coggins
Publisher: Down & Out Books
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2024-03-04
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

Someone is trying to murder Japanese bar hostess Coco Ono. Tokyo’s transphobic police won’t investigate, so she turns to American private eye August Riordan. Riordan is a complete fish out of water in Japan—doesn’t know the language, isn’t on speaking terms with sushi, hasn’t even traveled outside the US—but Coco has been told Riordan makes things happen. And happen they do: from the minute Riordan’s size 12 Florsheims hit the ground in Tokyo, he is fending off attackers. Riordan and Coco are drawn into a conspiracy involving multiple yakuza clans, popular celebrities, and politicians at the very highest level of government. The bizarre crime they find at the center rattles the country’s power structure and jeopardizes both their lives. A roiling chankonabe (sumo wrestler stew) of love hotels, cryptocurrency fraud, “soapland” brothels and the Japanese Adult Video industry, Geisha Confidential is an immersive exploration of a culture like no other and a must-read for fans of international crime fiction. Critical Acclaim for Geisha Confidential: “Combine a beautiful trans bar hostess, a jet-lagged American PI, the yakuza, cryptocurrency trading, murder, Tokyo and stir. What you get is Coggins’s masterful Geisha Confidential. A genius combination of a classic PI tale and the unique.” —Reed Farrel Coleman, New York Times bestselling author of Sleepless City “Mark Coggins…outdoes himself with this tale of sexual shenanigans that range from the lowest soapland Tokyo brothels to the highest levels of Japanese government... [He] is a gifted artist whose award-winning photos of Tokyo settings enhance his witty, razor-sharp prose.” —John Billheimer, Edgar Award-winning author of the Owen Allison and Lloyd Keaton series

Playing Dead

Playing Dead
Author: TG Wolff
Publisher: Down & Out Books
Total Pages: 267
Release: 2024-02-19
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

The nightmare is over. Alexander “Rotten” Carter is dead. But when his body is dumped in Cleveland Homicide Detective Jesus De La Cruz’s neighborhood, there are more questions than answers. Rotten was dressed up like the king of hearts, right down to the dagger in the suicide king’s temple. The elaborate staging is perplexing at the same time it seems to be sending a message. As Cruz investigates, he discovers Rotten Carter was more complex than the simple villain he had painted him to be. So is his murder, which is related to the deaths of his two lieutenants months prior. Both were strangled and found, with playing cards in their mouths. Jacks. As the body count climbs, connection tie back to a dead CI and an accident that made a cop a widower. A web becomes apparent with one man in the middle: Narcotics Detective Matt Yablonski. But is he the spider or another fly? Critical Acclaim for Books by TG Wolff: “A fun addition to Wolff's Diamond series. Fast-paced and chock-full of enough hard-boiled humor to make Raymond Chandler jealous. With a chapter title like ‘Naked Man Surfing and Other Odd Hobbies’ and a line like ‘Being dead isn't as much fun as I thought it would be’—how can a reader go wrong?” —Michael Bruce Blackwell, author of Wildlife on the Serengeti, for Psycho Therapy “Salty, sarcastic, tough as they come, Diamond is a woman you want by your side, not in your rearview mirror. TG Wolff proves she is on top of her game with her latest Diamond Mystery.” —Stephen Burdick, author of Yesterday Rising and The Gray Detective, for Psycho Therapy “TG Wolff’s novel is for crime-fiction fans who like it action-packed and hard-edged. Written with feisty panache, it introduces Diamond, one of the most aggressive, ill-tempered, and wholly irresistible heroines to ever swagger across the page.” —David Housewright, Edgar Award-winning author of Dead Man’s Mistress, for Widow’s Run “TG Wolff’s Detective De La Cruz is caught in the crosshairs of solving heinous crimes, defending himself against a wrongful lawsuit, helping an abusive drug dealer’s family, thwarting his mother’s matchmaking, and falling in love. Pit against those who subvert justice and twist the law to suit their own ends, Cruz stands true while suffering his own demons—everything a hero should be. Wolff’s unsentimental and precise writing draws readers. Add Exacting Justice to your ‘to be read’ pile.” —E. B. Davis, mystery author “Working with an incarcerated population, I deal regularly with people who have made poor life decisions but who can be inherently funny, surprisingly talented, or overly concerned. I know that simple labels of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ don’t work in the real world. In Exacting Justice, TG Wolff created characters just as messy, complicated, and dynamic as real life that keep you wanting to read page after page.” —Vincent Giammarco, Director of Behavioral Health Care

Chance Harbour

Chance Harbour
Author: Colin Campbell
Publisher: Down & Out Books
Total Pages: 214
Release: 2022-12-19
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

“I know cops who twisted their ankle took longer off work than you. Being dead for fifteen minutes is still dead.” “And now I’m alive. You just said so. So what’s your point?” Sam Kincaid looked at Jim Grant. “Here’s my point. Getting resurrected takes a damn sight longer than getting over a twisted ankle.” Queens, New York The old man in Bed 7 said he’d been involved in a work accident up the road from New York Presbyterian—Queens. Ward 4E doesn’t deal with work accidents it is the Intensive Care Unit. Dementia is robbing George Edwards of any coherent thoughts until his face finally clears and he looks at the nurse. “Okay. I know what happened. I need you to call my son. He’s with the Boston Police at Jamaica Plain.” Jim Grant isn’t at Jamaica Plain he is taking Sam Kincaid’s advice and getting over being resurrected. Until he gets a call from New York to say his father is seriously ill. A mercy dash to the hospital sees Grant arrive too late. His father has been abducted. A bomb has exploded outside a diner. And the FBI wants to know how Grant’s father knows a Russian oligarch who is even older than he is. For father and son it could be the last chance to reconcile their differences. It might also be the last chance for everything.

Operation Snow

Operation Snow
Author: John Koster
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2012-09-17
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1596983299

Americans have long debated the cause of the December 7, 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor. Many have argued that the attack was a brilliant Japanese military coup, or a failure of U.S. intelligence agencies, or even a conspiracy of the Roosevelt administration. But despite the attention historians have paid to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the truth about that fateful day has remained a mystery—until now. In Operation Snow: How a Soviet Mole in FDR’s White House Triggered Pearl Harbor, author John Koster uses recently declassified evidence and never-before-translated documents to tell the real story of the day that FDR memorably declared would live in infamy, forever. Operation Snow shows how Joseph Stalin and the KGB used a vast network of double-agents and communist sympathizers—most notably, Harry Dexter White—to lead Japan into war against the United States, demonstrating incontestable Soviet involvement behind the bombing of Pearl Harbor. A thrilling tale of espionage, mystery and war, Operation Snow will forever change the way we think about Pearl Harbor and World War II.

The Snow Queen

The Snow Queen
Author: Joan D. Vinge
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 495
Release: 2015-10-27
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 076538177X

The imperious Winter colonists have ruled the planet Tiamat for 150 years, deriving wealth from the slaughter of the sea mers. But soon the galactic stargate will close, isolating Tiamat, and the 150-year reign of the Summer primitives will begin. All is not lost if Arienrhod, the ageless, corrupt Snow Queen, can destroy destiny with an act of genocide. Arienrhod is not without competition as Moon, a young Summer-tribe sibyl, and the nemesis of the Snow Queen, battles to break a conspiracy that spans space.

The Snow Queen

The Snow Queen
Author: Mercedes Lackey
Publisher: LUNA
Total Pages: 409
Release: 2009-02-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1426827415

Aleksia, Queen of the Northern Lights, is mysterious, beautiful and widely known to have a heart of ice. But when she's falsely accused of unleashing evil on nearby villages, she realizes there's an impostor out there far more heartless than she could ever be. And when a young warrior disappears, Aleksia's powers are needed as never before. Now, on a journey through a realm of perpetual winter, it will take all her skills, a mother's faith and a little magic to face down an enemy more formidable than any she has ever known….