In a case deciding the future of clean energy, everything hinges on how the chief justice of Supreme Court will lean. DANGEROUS WOMEN stirs up the perfect cocktail of ingenious spy-craft and political intrigue of Thomas Perry's The Old Man brightened with the charming, uncanny energy of Killers of a Certain Age. This urgent, cleverly plotted high stakes thriller is set in motion by botched attack on two law clerks leaving one dead and the other in a coma. The ensuing cover up leaves a string of bodies and too many players at cross-purposes. It also leaves Chief Justice Clarissa Baxter with a target on her back. We'll need an off the grid hero with friends in high places: enter retired FBI agent-turned-boardinghouse landlady, Ethel Fiona Crestwater (legend) and her double-first-cousin-twice-removed Jesse Cooper (sidekick). Although in her mid-seventies, Ethel is no bumbling amateur sleuth; she's a seasoned pro with razor-sharp instincts and Bond-worthy skills. College-aged Jesse brings tech savvy and boundless enthusiasm, along with an innate talent for intrigue. Together, the unlikely duo will face malicious back-stabbing political sycophants, conniving lobbyists, and a motivated assassin bent on removing the Chief Justice from the equation-along with Ethel, who stands defiantly between the hitman and his payday.

Praise for Mark de Castrique... "Comparable to James Lee Burke and Margaret Maron." -Library Journal starred review of Fatal Undertaking When his wife dies of ovarian cancer, Russell Mullins quits the Secret Service and joins a Washington, D.C. private protection company assigned to guard Paul Luguire, a Federal Reserve executive. They become friends, so when word comes in the middle of the night that Luguire has committed suicide, Mullins doesn't buy it. His doubts are reinforced by the discovery of a suspicious financial transaction initiated by Luguire only days before his death. Soon that transaction is erased from Federal Reserve records and records show the money wired from an offshore account in the name of Russell Mullins. Someone is setting Rusty up.... Mark de Castrique is the author of two other mystery series. The 13th Target is his first standalone thriller. www.markdecastrique.com

Everybody has something to hide At 75-years-old, Ethel Fiona Crestwater is used to being underestimated. She looks like someone's grandma, though she's never married or had children; petite and a bit frail, she's not a threat to anyone. Or is she...? Ethel runs a boarding house for government agents, and when someone murders one of her boarders, she springs into action-much to the surprise of her distant cousin Jesse, who has recently come to stay with her while he attends university. As he watches her photograph the crime scene, conceal evidence, and speed-dial the Secret Service Director, Jesse realizes that there's much more to Ethel than appearances suggest. But when Jesse is assaulted and the gym bag full of cash Ethel had hidden is stolen from the basement, the pair decides it's time to launch their own unofficial investigation. With no one to trust but each other, these double-first-cousins-twice-removed form an unlikely bond, and learn that the only thing truly worth risking your life for is family.

From the author of Blackman's Coffin, one of Amazon's Top 10 Mysteries for 2008 When his wife dies of ovarian cancer, Russell Mullins quits the Secret Service to repurpose his life. He joins a Washington D.C. private protection company and is assigned to guard Paul Luguire, a Federal Reserve executive and its chief liaison with the U.S. Treasury. Mullins and Luguire form a strong friendship. So when a police detective calls in the middle of the night with word of Luguire's suicide, Mullins doesn't buy it. His doubts are reinforced by Amanda Church, a former Secret Service colleague now in the Federal Reserve's cyber-security unit. She uncovered a suspicious financial transaction initiated by Luguire only days before his death. He authorized unrequested funds to be transferred from the Federal Reserve to a regional bank. Even stranger, after Luguire's suicide, Amanda finds the transaction has been erased from Federal Reserve records. The regional bank now shows the money wired from an offshore account in the name of Russell Mullins. Someone is setting Rusty up. And when the bank president is murdered, Mullins rockets to the top of the suspect list. As a tenacious reporter develops leads, Mullins follows a conspiratorial trail of killing and kidnapping that leads from a shadowy mastermind to the possible destruction of America's financial system. In an age of Wall Street meltdowns and downgrading of the U.S. credit rating, the secretive Federal Reserve has a pivotal role. Twelve targets are known. The clock is ticking. What, or who, is the thirteenth?

DOUBLE CROSS OF TIME - A Thriller from the Future JULY 4, 2012 - SCIENTISTS MAKE NEW DISCOVERY - THE ELUSIVE GOD PARTICLE? The headline flashed around the world and ushered in a new era of scientific research. But where will it lead? What dangers will be revealed? The year is 2030. Scientist Jonathan Singer stands on the verge of achieving his two greatest dreams: marriage to his soul mate Sally DeMille and the successful launch of The American Super Collider, the culmination of his cutting-edge research. But when an elderly man shows up at his apartment with irrefutable proof that he is also Dr. Jonathan Singer, Jonathan's ordered life spins wildly out of control. The old man claims to have traveled back from forty years in the future. He makes a desperate plea--"To thine own self be true." But this self is telling him to destroy everything he's worked for. Is Jonathan being true to himself or battling his own worst enemy? Will he betray himself or lose the woman he loves? One thing is certain--while Jonathan races against time to save the Future, someone is trying to kill him in the Present. The countdown has begun and the fate of the world hangs in the balance.

When old Birdie Campbell dies, many in the NC mountain town of Ridgetop are not particularly sorrowed by her passing. But McAdams & Son Funeral Home still has to plan a service and find someone willing to say good things about the dearly departed. Birdie's death unleashes a string of events that threaten to destroy not only the civility of her service, but the funeral home itself. Stage Play presented as part of The New Plays in America and New Voices of the South series.

A LOCKED-ROOM YOUNG ADULT WHODUNIT IN THE CLASSIC TRADITION OF SHERLOCK HOLMES

A VIEW OF HISTORY REVEALED THROUGH A MYSTERY

JUNE 1860 -- A new locomotive christened A Southern Breeze steams across the Carolina countryside carrying seventeen-year-old Jeb Bennett and his twin sister Rachel Leigh to the exhilarating promise of a summer in Charleston.

While storm clouds gather over the landscape, fiercer storms rage inside the passenger cars. The tensions between North and South rapidly escalate until one traveler's journey abruptly and brutally ends. Who was the murderer? Was the victim the real target? Amid swirling suspicions and deceptive intrigue, Jeb and Rachel Leigh join Pinkerton Detective Jonathan Ward in a race to unmask a killer.

But murder isn't the only evil Jeb must confront. As motives and suspects abound, Jeb learns what it means to place a price on a human life, not only as a victim of murder, but also as property to be traded and sold.

The final showdown means hard choices, a test of loyalties, and a face-to-face encounter with Death On A Southern Breeze.

Gene Adamson thought he knew the answers.
He thought he'd cracked the conspiracy wide open.
He was so wrong.

As a young girl's life hangs in the balance, seventeen-year-old Gene Adamson stumbles into a conspiracy so deadly the very knowledge of its existence marks him for death.

. . . . .

"The suspense builds to a brilliant conclusion ... This work is storytelling at its best totally drawing you into every event happening ... a great read and I give it a high recommendation." --Shirley Johnson, Senior Reviewer, MidWest Book Review

When Cherokee burial remains are unearthed on the site expanding a local cemetery, the dual occupations of Barry Clayton, part-time deputy and fulltime undertaker, collide. Then, during the interment of the wife of one of Gainesboro, North Carolina's most prominent citizens, Cherokee activist Jimmy Panther leads a protest. Words and fists fly. When Panther turns up executed on the grave of the deceased woman, Barry is forced to confront her family as the chief suspects. But the case lurches in a new direction with the arrival of Sheriff Tommy Lee Wadkin's army pal, Boston cop Kevin Malone. He's on the trail of a Boston hit man who arrived at the Cherokee reservation only days before the murder. Malone is convinced his quarry is the triggerman. But who paid him? And why? The accelerating investigation draws Barry onto the reservation where Panther's efforts to preserve Cherokee traditions threatened the development of a new casino, a casino bringing millions of dollars of construction plus huge yearly payouts to every member of the tribe. Leading an unlikely team --his childhood nemesis Archie Donovan and his elderly fellow undertaker Uncle Wayne --Barry goes undercover. But the stakes are higher than he realized in this risky undertaking. And the life of a Cherokee boy becomes the wager. Barry must play his cards very carefully ."

Barry Clayton has a job he doesn't want. When his father is stricken with Alzheimer's, Barry leaves the Charlotte police force for the small mountain community of Gainesboro, North Carolina, where his family runs the local funeral home. ""Buryin' Barry"" reluctantly assumes the mantle of town undertaker, trying to fit his life into this somber profession.

Almost at once it turns deadly. At the graveside service for an elderly woman, a grieving grandson strides in like Clint Eastwood in a duster, rips out a shotgun, and murders his family. Then the shooter turns the weapon on Barry. ""Take a message to my grandmother,"" Dallas Willard shouts. ""Tell her they tried to take the land. Tell her I love her."" The blast hits Barry in the shoulder.

Barry is not cut from the same black cloth as his father, and his irreverent wit and independence have already won him the friendship of the county sheriff, Vietnam War hero Tommy Lee Wadkins. Besides, Barry's a police pro. Though his wounds are in the hands of local surgeon Susan Miller, Barry begins search for both the killer and the reason for his crime. It isn't long before a second shooting occurs--but Dallas Willard's body is then discovered at the bottom of a quarry pond, indisputable evidence that someone else committed the second crime, someone who now has his sights set on Barry....

Praise for the first Sam Blackman mystery... "A wealth of historical detail, an exciting treasure hunt, and credible characters....A fresh, adventurous read." -Publishers Weekly starred review of Blackman's Coffin Things are slow at the Blackman & Robertson Detective Agency. So Nakayla Robertson suggests a mushroom hunt at the historic, freed-slave commune, The Kingdom of the Happy Land. Hunting the elusive edible, Sam Blackman stumbles into a rotting log...with a skeleton hidden inside. Soon the pair are asked to investigate a 45-year-old burglary. Someone stole a rifle and a photograph taken in 1932 at The Kingdom of the Happy Land. When the 85-year-old burglary victim is arrested for murder, Sam investigates and finds a veil of betrayal and deceit that hides a killer desperate to protect a dark secret. Mark de Castrique grew up in the mountains of western North Carolina where his mysteries are set. A Murder in Passing is his fourth Sam Blackman mystery. www.markdecastrique.com

A simple assignment for private investigator Sam Blackman and his partner Nakayla Robertson: follow Professor Janice Wainwright, who's suing a surgeon for malpractice, and catch her in activities that undercut her claim. When Wainwright visits Connemara, Carl Sandburg's home in Flat Rock, N.C., and climbs the arduous trail to the top of Glassy Mountain, Sam believes he has the evidence needed to expose her--until he finds the woman semi-conscious and bleeding. Her final words: "It's the Sandburg verses. The Sandburg verses." As the first person to discover the dying woman, Sam becomes the prime suspect. When an autopsy reveals painkillers in her blood and solid proof of the surgeon's errors, Sam is left with the haunting questions: why did this suffering woman attempt to climb the mountain? Did someone cause her death? A break-in at the Wainwright farmhouse and the theft of Sandburg volumes convince Sam someone is seeking information worth killing for. But what did Pulitzer-Prize-winner Sandburg have in his literary collection that has inspired multiple murders? And who will be targeted next? This is the third installment in the Sam Blackman series.

Former Chief Warrant Officer Sam Blackman lost a leg in Iraq and emerged from the V.A. hospital in Asheville, NC, as a bitter civilian without a job or a future. Now he and his partner, Nakayla Robertson, have opened a detective agency. Their first client, a quirky elderly woman in a retirement community, wants Sam to right a wrong she committed more than 70 years ago. Her victim was F. Scott Fitzgerald. Her crime was stealing a manuscript. Sam's task seems simple enough: retrieve the woman's lockbox and deliver the manuscript to Fitzgerald's heirs. But the sealed lockbox disappears, a security guard is killed, and Sam's final military case has followed him from Iraq. Are these mysteries connected? Or is one a ruse luring him into the crosshairs of his enemies? Mark de Castrique, an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, grew up in western North Carolina. The Fitzgerald Ruse is his second Sam Blackman mystery. http://mark-et-al.com