He lives just outside Minneapolis/St. Paul, where the city meets the prairie, where the winters are long, the men are rugged, and a stubborn detective with a murky past is a little out of place. But Jake Hines has to worry about more than just fitting in: there's a serial killer on the loose. The first victim was found on home plate in a neighborhood park. The next wore an old softball uniform and an obscene disfigurement. While Jake, a man who can solve any mystery except that of his own orphaned past, rummages through the dirty laundry of people's lives, a group of high-tech crime busters descends from the big city--thrilled at the chance to dance with a serial psycho. But even with a beautiful crime-scene photographer providing a major distraction, Jake takes no pleasure from this hunt. Because this killer is pulling him relentlessly toward one more murder, one more suspect, and one very bitter truth. . . .

A car chase ending with the murder of a senior living centre employee draws Detective Sarah Burke into a chilling case where her career - and her life - are soon at risk. Detective Sarah Burke and new cop Zivko 'Bogey' Boganicevic are sent to an incident at Fairweather Farms senior living center in Tucson. The center's van has suddenly been chased at reckless speed by a carload of bandits firing high-powered rifles, and crashed into its own garage. Arriving at the scene, Sarah makes a grisly discovery: the driver, Enrique Lopez, was shot in the head during the chase. Why was a kindly man, dedicated to looking after the elderly, targeted and killed so dramatically by a team of hoodlums? As Sarah works through her list of questions, she soon finds herself drawn into the high-stakes world of drugs, deception and mistaken identity where nothing is as it first appears, and she is forced to risk her career - and her life - in her search for answers.

The body was lying in the snow near the river, almost naked and definitely dead. It's not only the murder that has police detective Jake Hines concerned. His girlfriend, Trudy, the crime scene expert with the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, who ought to be at the scene, is stuck in a snowdrift somewhere. When a second body is discovered with a similar wound, a picture starts to emerge, an image etched in passion, betrayal, and fear. With the publication of Triple Play and Par Four, the first book in the Jake Hines series, Elizabeth Gunn was praised for her handling of character, plot, and procedure. In Five Card Stud, she deals a perfect hand.

In this short, holiday-themed installment in the long-running Jake Hines Mystery series, the department store Santa of Rutherford, Minnesota, goes missing. Then a child's happy shout calls attention to the red-suited figure just visible within the branches of the Christmas tree. Jake Hines investigates a holiday mystery filled with too many Santas. Whether you are looking for a quick introduction to this long-running, popular mystery series or you are in the mood for a bit of Christmas cheer, you can't go wrong with this quick read.

Too many people see Rutherford, Minnesota, as a safe haven, an escape from the woes of the big cities, like St. Paul or Minneapolis. For Jake Hines - recently promoted to Chief of detectives in Rutherford - however, the picture is different. He's too aware of the deterioration of the old downtown section, and too involved in dealing with the kids who've turned to drugs, not only as a habit but as a way to get rich quick. And he knows that many of those kids - users and dealers alike - aren't local. It's because of those dealers that he's now facing a Critical Incident debriefing. As Jake puts it: "Dodging an occasional bullet is an inconvenience I can live with, but spilling my guts in public is not." He's saved from the ordeal when word comes of a robbery at a bar in the center of the city. It's a place he knows: He worked there once, and, like most of the men and boys back then, he really liked the owner, a woman named Babe. Rescuing her from the chair she's been duct-taped to is easy, but it's only the beginning; it releases a trail of robbery and murder that leads Jake to places he never expected to have to go in Rutherford, no matter how much it may have changed.

A huge mountain fire leaves destruction – and death – in its wake. But are the charred remains of a male body really the result of a natural disaster, or murder?The Meredith Mountain fire starts on Labor Day weekend and rages for days – an awesome sight, leaving a trail of havoc and destruction in its wake. Alice Adams edits the Clark's Fort Guardian newspaper, ably assisted by her nephew, Stuart Campbell, and the two cover the blaze for the paper, vowing the local community with their stunning photographs and features.When the fire is finally contained and the mop-up crew discover a burned male body under a fallen log, Alice and Stuart investigate. It seems he died in the fire, but with no ID and nobody knowing anything about the body, they soon face a daunting task – and some disturbing revelations. Can they unravel the truth?

"A great recommendation for fans of J.A. Jance's Arizona-set mysteries"BooklistA murder leads Sarah Burke to investigate a money-laundering ring with connections extending far beyond Tucson – but does the key to solving the case lie closer to home than she realises?The murder of a man seen fighting in a house during a Fourth of July street parade plunges Sarah Burke's whole household – her fragile mother Aggie, shrewd and ever-helpful live-in boyfriend Will and even her hard-charging niece, Denny – into her latest case.The investigation leads to a money-laundering ring with international connections, and Sarah and her smart, hard-working crew of detectives must follow the puzzle, set against the backdrop of Tucson's unique character – an ancient, beautiful valley with a polyglot ethnic community and a bilingual, modern city – without knowing where it might take them. Could the answers lie closer to home...