Indie Crime Fiction of the Month for April 2018

Welcome to the latest edition of “Indie Crime Fiction of the Month”.

So what is “Indie Crime Fiction of the Month”? It’s a round-up of speculative fiction by indie authors newly published this month, though some March books I missed the last time around snuck in as well. The books are arranged in alphabetical order by author. So far, most links only go to Amazon.com, though I may add other retailers for future editions.

Our new releases cover the broad spectrum of crime fiction. We have cozy mysteries, international mysteries, British mysteries, YA mysteries, paranormal mysteries, science fiction mysteries, steampunk mysteries, crime thrillers, psychological thrillers, legal thrillers, romantic suspense, spy fiction, lawyers, spies, traitors, gunrunners, stalkers, serial killers, school shooters, grim reapers, the Greek mafia, innocents in prison, foiled weddings, murder on theatre stages, aboard airships and in outer space, spy action in the Middle East, crime in Las Vegas, Chicago, Alaska and Greece and much more.

As always, I know the authors at least vaguely, but I haven’t read all of the books, so Caveat emptor.

And now on to the books without further ado:

Murder on the Titania and Other Steam-Powered Adventures by Alex Acks:

Captain Marta Ramos, the most notorious pirate in the Duchy of Denver, has her hands full between fascinating murder mysteries, the delectable and devious Delilah Nimowitz, Colonel Geoffrey Douglas (the Duke of Denver’s new head of security), a spot of airship engineering and her usual activities: piracy, banditry and burglary. Not to mention the horror of high society tea parties. In contrast, Simms, her second in command, longs only for a quiet life, filled with tasty sausages and fewer explosions. Or does he? Join Captain Ramos, Simms and their crew as they negotiate the perils of air, land and drawing room in a series of fast-paced adventures in a North America that never was.

Murder on the Titania and Other Steam-Powered Adventures includes 4 novellas and a short story about piracy, banditry, burglary, jail-breaking, several brilliant bits of detective work and all manner of otherwise lawless hijinks performed by the valiant Captain Ramos and her crew.

Murder on the Titania: Colonel Geoffrey Douglas, the Duke of Denver’s new head of security, is drawn into a high society murder mystery on the Airship Titania. None of the passengers are quite what they seem, including the mysterious young woman who always turns up where she is least expected.

The Curious Case of Clementine Nimowitz (and Her Exceedingly Tiny Dog):
A simple burglary goes horribly awry when Captain Ramos and Simms stumble across a dead body, a small dog and the deceased’s heirs, the noisome Morris and the rather too interesting Delilah.

The Jade Tiger: a mysterious woman enlists Captain Ramos’s aid in getting her revenge on her former employer and Captain Ramos finds herself doing an unintentional good deed.

The Ugly Tin Orrery: Captain Ramos and her crew embark on what appears to be a perfectly ordinary train robbery, only to be drawn into the Duke of Denver’s political machinations via a strange metal artifact. Throw in a spot of jail breaking and an encounter with the lovely Delilah, and it’s all in a day’s work for Captain Ramos and Simms.

The Flying Turk: The Airship Titania is entering a new era and welcoming its first automaton pilot. Or, perhaps not. Captain Ramos and Simms are back aboard the Titania for a heady mix of murder, robbery, peeved scientists and oblivious peers, with a spot of engineering thrown in.

A Staged Death by A.G. Barnett

When showbiz gets ugly…

The world of showbiz comes to Bexford when the new series of hit TV show Foul Murder is launched there. Soon, life imitates art as a murder is committed, live on stage.

Luckily, Detective Sergeant Guy Poole and Detective Inspector Sam Brock are in the audience to take charge of the scene.

When it becomes clear that one of their own is the prime suspect, they are determined to help prove his innocence, no matter how annoying he is.

The Gate House Secret by Debra Burroughs:

Reporter Jenessa Jones’ wedding is right around the corner…until her nemesis Grey Alexander digs up an explosive, long-buried secret and threatens to expose it unless she calls off the wedding.

Feisty Jenessa is determined to fight to keep her skeletons buried, but soon she is rocked to the core when a scandalous murder puts her entire future in jeopardy…not to mention her life. Can she uncover the killer, hold on to her fiancé, and make it to the altar alive?

Blind Justice by Nathan Burrows:

Gareth Dawson is an innocent man. Not a murderer. His main problem is that the British justice system doesn’t agree with him.

He might be a reformed thief guilty of many things in his past, but not murder. In the space of a few short months, he’s gone from being married to the woman of his dreams to facing a life sentence.

Inside Her Majesty’s Prison Whitemoor, a Category A prison in Cambridgeshire, Gareth’s got all the time in the world to go over the events that led to the guilty verdict. The guilty verdict which cost him everything in the world that he loved. His dignity. His freedom. His wife.

Gareth is approached by a lawyer, Paul Dewar, who claims to have information that will vindicate Gareth. But is it enough to set him free? As threats against Gareth increase on the inside, Paul Dewar’s challenge, and Gareth’s fight for freedom, begins.

Against All Odds by Stacy Claflin:

Betrayals. Secrets. Tragedy.

It started as a day like any other for Alex Mercer. Then he heard the news. Something that only happens in other places is happening in his hometown.

Just a few miles away at his daughter’s middle school, a shooter is on the loose. Alex does what every other parent in town does—he races to the school to find out if his loved ones are safe.

His world falls apart around him, and he can’t turn to his best friend because they’re both dealing with scathing terror.

As the motive behind the shooting comes to light, secrets and betrayals spiral out of control.

Will Alex give into old temptations in the face of the current situation, or will he be able to move past everything and help those he loves the most?

No Direction Home by John Ellsworth:

Michael Gresham is the lawyer you’d want to call about a crime. Especially if you were guilty…

Visana, proudly packing away her brand new medical license, leaves for Iraq. She has accepted a medical mission to the Kurds. After landing in Baghdad, her driver heads north toward Kirkuk. For six straight months, Visana treats maimed and burned children who wandered into the path of the war. Saddam Hussein’s soldiers are now in charge. And they are looking for her. Baghdad knows she’s there, knows she’s a doctor, and wants to use her in the war to treat Saddam Hussein’s soldiers. Or so they say.

But once she’s in their grasp, her whole world turns upside-down. Hussein uses her to commit crimes more horrible that any she’d ever imagined. Meanwhile, outside the walls of the clinic, the war rages. After six months of back-and-forth fighting, the American Army gains control of Kirkuk. Visana is released from the horror of her captivity. But she is a broken woman with no idea how to fix herself. Using every resource she can muster, she is on a jet bound for Chicago by the next evening. Home has never looked better: a place to rest and weep and start to heal.

Instead, one afternoon as she’s walking along Michigan Avenue, she is arrested. The U.S. Army is charging her with war crimes. If she’s convicted she will be put to death–the Army prosecutors make that very clear. There can be no forgiveness.

Her family knows nothing about lawyers in Chicago, especially criminal lawyers. But then, “Several years ago,” her grandfather tells her, “there was a lawyer here who never lost. His name was Gresham.”

Michael Gresham gets the call. Visana has tracked him down. She tells him her story. He has never heard of such horror before, but he agrees to help.

And why not? He believes she’s actually innocent.
As innocent as they ever are.

Winter City Wolf Moon by Elvis English:

When the bodies of two young Alaska Native women are discovered along the banks of Ship Creek, and their deaths are ruled “accidental” and “undetermined” by police, burned out gumshoe Lewis Bocarde, well-acquainted with life on the gritty streets of Anchorage, senses something sinister rising. Allied with a suicidal social worker named Grace and a street-savvy group of indigenous contrarians, Bocarde races to discover what flocks of ravens already know.

And to thaw the frantic screams frozen in the snow.

Harriet Walsh: Peace Force by Simon Haynes:

Harriet Walsh is desperate for work, but when an intergalactic crime-fighting organisation offers her a job she’s convinced it’s a mistake. She dislikes puzzles, has never read a detective mystery, and hates wearing uniforms. So why did the Peace Force pick her?

Who cares? Harriet needs the money, and she’s happy to go along with the training for as long as they keep paying her. She’d better dig out some of those detective mysteries though, because she’s about to embark on her first real mission…

Betrayal by Ethan Jones

A hero, sent out as a mark. Who’s behind the betrayal?

Spies on the hunt.
A traitor in their midst.
Suspicions are high and time is short.
Who is behind the betrayal?

Spy Master Javin wants to eliminate two terrorist masterminds, but he’s not the only one looking for them. When the mission suspiciously goes awry, his team is now forced into a dubious alliance with Mossad and the infamous Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard.

Pursuing the terrorists deep into hostile Saudi Arabia, they not only discover an assassination plot that could topple the Saudi kingdom, but also suspect a traitor has infiltrated their team. Who is behind this betrayal? With suspicions high and time short, can Javin and Claudia unmask the traitor and stop the assassination plot before the Middle East is plunged into an all-out war?

Good Crime by Alex A. King:

Have Greek car, will travel?

The bad news:
Kat Makris’ car just went up in flames.

The good news:
Kat has a new …
Well, it’s not technically a car, but it could be if she squints and ignores the braying.

Kat is going nowhere fast on her new mode of transport, but the world is changing shape around her. Dad is thinking of selling her childhood home; the devastatingly sexy Detective Nikos Melas is no longer speaking to her; and scrumptious Xander, double agent, has been keeping his distance.

The ground under her feet lurches sideways again when the Godfather of the Night himself, Baby Dimitri, rocks up to the family compound, begging for sanctuary. An old enemy has clawed his way out of the grave. He wants Baby Dimitri dead. He wants Grandma dead. Basically he wants everyone dead. And he wants them to do their dying to the beat of a 1980s soundtrack.

With a funeral to orchestrate, a long-neglected filing cabinet to sort through, and a KGB agent’s familiar flunkies following her every move, Kat doesn’t want to get involved.

Until Grandma’s kidnapping leaves her with no other choice.

Grim Tempest by Amanda M. Lee:

Life should be good for Aisling Grimlock. She’s engaged to a great guy, she’s getting the hang of being a reaper, and her rich father spoils her rotten on a regular basis. All that changes when a series of storms hit and the Michigan populace starts turning downright dangerous.

The streets are running with blood as people turn on one another for no good reason and the hospital is filling up with the sick and injured. That’s on top of the ones who are dying in terrible fashion … and leaving nothing but angst in their wake.

Right from the beginning, Aisling is convinced the storms are magical in origin. Of course, because she’s prone to theatrical fits, no one believes her … until the storms hit a little too close to home and Aisling herself is in danger from the one person she trusts above all others.

As a cop, Griffin Davenport is used to putting his life on the line. What he’s not comfortable with is being a threat to the people he’s supposed to be helping. The storms, you see, don’t affect reapers but those they love are in a heap of danger.

Aisling is determined to find the source of the storms, even if it leads to someone in her own family. She’s willing to claw, scratch and fight until the danger is eliminated. She’s also willing to whine, cajole and beg if it means she gets her way.

A big fight is coming, and it will be under a cloudy sky. Will the Grimlocks live to reap another day or have they finally found an enemy that’s big enough to take them out?

Chicago Creed by Stuart Matthews:

She took an oath to uphold the law, but oaths can be broken.

Chicago PD Detective Shannon Rourke is falling apart, but by now, she’s used to it.

Her misfortune, however, has infected the people she loves. Her boyfriend worries she’s concealing a dark secret, and his daughter is tormented by memories of a deranged serial killer–who targeted the girl because of Shannon.

She needs a break from work before she snaps, but her problems have to wait when she’s called to a puzzling crime scene on Chicago’s deadly West Side. With a killer dropping fresh corpses every day, she fights to keep her demons shackled while she goes on the hunt. A single misstep could turn her misfortune into deadly tragedy–not only for herself, but for the family she loves.

The Dead Woman by Jennifer Samson:

Secrets can kill …

Tim Kelly makes a deal with Mexican gunrunners that will bring him much-needed cash and improve his standing in Vegas’ criminal underworld. Then he gets stiffed, and the only person with an explanation isn’t talking.

Lupe Delgado is on the run from a powerful cartel and her only goal is to put distance between her and the man who wants her dead. Her escape is thwarted when she ends up in Tim’s hands.

Tim offers an exchange: information on the location of his weapons shipment for Lupe’s freedom. Lupe reluctantly agrees to help Tim, but refuses to tell him why she fled Mexico.

When hitmen arrive in town, Tim and Lupe take the fight to Mexico. Surrounded by enemies, Lupe must reveal her secret if they’re going to survive – and it’s one the cartel will kill to keep.

Because… Anonymous by Diana L. Sharples:

It’s tough to be a good guy … when everyone thinks you’re a stalker.

On the run from an abusive father, Noah Dickerson is supposed to be lying low and staying out of trouble.

Mistake #1, falling in with a group of anime fans who aren’t as harmless as they seem.
Mistake #2, crushing on a beautiful girl who isn’t fooled by Noah’s good looks and charm.
Mistake #3, being in the wrong place when she receives threatening notes in her locker.

But the biggest mistake, Noah learns, was when his mother escaped North Carolina with him.

Because, it turns out, transporting a minor over state lines in the middle of the night is a felony.

Secrets and Lies by Rachel Sinclair:

A young billionaire, Silas Porter, is accused of murdering his socialite wife, Ava.

Damien takes the case, not knowing the real reason why Silas, CEO of Porter Enterprises, an international tech firm, is so determined that he represent him. Him, and only him.

As Damien digs deeper into the case, he realizes that nothing and nobody are as they seem. After finding out Silas’ deep, dark secrets, Damien attempts to withdraw from the case. But there’s no way that he’s going to let him drop his case so easily.

By the time the trial rolls around, Damien doesn’t know if he’s coming or going with his client. Then a surprise witness emerges that tosses everything on its head.

With a surprise twist that you’ll never see coming, and the twists and turns that you’ve come to expect from a Damien Harrington Legal Thriller, Secrets and Lies is not to be missed!!!