Authors: Joanne Pence
Four O'Clock Sizzle: An Inspector Rebecca Mayfield Mystery (The Rebecca Mayfield Mysteries Book 4) (20 page)
The multi-volume California Penal Code lined the bookshelves behind the secretary's desk in the reception area, kept there both because it was huge and also so it wouldn’t get lost in the piles of papers around the inspectors’ desks. The way the mall's management had pushed her to shut down the crime scene as quickly as possible had rankled badly. She hurried, and didn't believe she had compromised the investigation by doing so, but she wanted to be able to quote back chapter and verse of the Code if she ever again found herself in a similar situation.
Somehow, she didn’t think the managers would have been so bossy if the inspector-in-charge had been one of the guys—Paavo Smith or Luis Calderon, in particular. Nobody told either of them what to do. Then there was Bo Benson, who would have worked out a give-and-take deal, or "Yosh" Yoshiwara, who would have found a way to get what he wanted and had the managers think it was their idea. Bill Sutter would have been a no-show. Only
she
could be pushed around. It was because she was a woman, she was sure—the only female homicide inspector in San Francisco.
She’d often been told that she was tough enough for the job. Well, boys, she was about to get even tougher.
Citing the Penal Code was one way to do it.
She sat scouring the complicated index at the empty secretary’s desk when a guy she’d never seen before swaggered in. He was an inch or two shy of six feet, a hundred ninety or so pounds, and probably in his late thirties or very early forties. His hair was jet black, a little long and wavy on top, and his brown eyes heavy-lidded, down-turned and intense.
She pegged him right away. He was actually fairly good-looking, and could have been appealing, except for one thing. It wasn't the designer threads, the way he carried himself as if he had no fear, or the expensive hardware like the watch that probably cost half her yearly salary. It was those eyes—dark with a certain knowledge and experience—that told her which side of the law this smooth operator walked on. Her instincts twitched and her back stiffened.
"Hey, there," he said. His hands were in his pockets, and he looked over his shoulder a couple of times. "How you doing?" His voice was as mellow and buttery as soft, well-tanned leather.
"Okay," she said in an even tone. His wasn’t the usual greeting for someone coming to this department. "This is Homicide," she pointed out.
"Yeah, I know." He glanced over his shoulder again. "I’m looking for someone. Paavo Smith."
She wondered if it was about a case. The guy looked nervous enough to be about to confess to murder. "Inspector Smith isn’t in today. Perhaps I can help you."
He cocked an eyebrow, his gaze definitely rakish. "I’m sure you can, but not in this. I need a cop. What, is he off today or just out on a case? Can you reach him?"
What an a-hole
. She stood up to her full five-foot ten-inch height and looked him straight in the eye. "I’m a homicide inspector," she said coolly. "Now, what is it you want,
sir
?"
Continue with
The Thirteenth Santa
on Amazon
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Joanne Pence was born and raised in northern California. She has been an award-winning,
USA Today
best-selling author of mysteries for many years, but she has also written historical fiction, contemporary romance, romantic suspense, a fantasy, and supernatural suspense. All of her books are now available as e-books, and most are also in print. Joanne hopes you’ll enjoy her books, which present a variety of times, places, and reading experiences, from mysterious to thrilling, emotional to lightly humorous, as well as powerful tales of times long past.
Visit her at
http://www.joannepence.com
. Also, to hear about new books, please sign up for Joanne’s
New Release Mailing List
.
The Inspector Rebecca Mayfield Mysteries
Readers enjoyed the interaction between Homicide Inspector Rebecca Mayfield, who works with Angie’s fiancé Paavo Smith, and Angie’s cousin, Richie Amalfi, in the Christmas novella,
The Thirteenth Santa,
and asked for more!
Rebecca is a by-the-book detective, who walks the straight and narrow in her work, and in her life. Richie, on the other hand, is not at all by-the-book. But opposites can and do attract, and there are few mystery two-somes quite as opposite as Rebecca and Richie.
ONE O’CLOCK HUSTLE
–
North American Book Award winner in Mystery
TWO
O’CLOCK
HEIST
THREE O’CLOCK SÉANCE
Plus a Christmas Novella:
The Thirteenth Santa
The Angie Amalfi Mysteries
Gourmet cook, sometime food columnist, sometime restaurant critic, and generally "underemployed" person Angelina Amalfi burst upon the mystery scene in SOMETHING'S COOKING, in which she met San Francisco Homicide Inspector Paavo Smith. Since that time she's wanted two things in life, a good job...and Paavo.
Here are the Angie mysteries in the order written:
Plus a Christmas novella:
Cook’s Curious Christmas
(The novella is also available in
COOK’S CHRISTMAS CAPERS
along with the Inspector Rebecca Mayfield novella, The Thirteenth Santa.)
Supernatural Suspense
Top Idaho Fiction Book Award Winner
Over two hundred years ago, a covert expedition shadowing Lewis and Clark disappeared in the wilderness of Central Idaho. Now, seven anthropology students and their professor vanish in the same area. The key to finding them lies in an ancient secret, one that men throughout history have sought to unveil.
Michael Rempart is a brilliant archeologist with a colorful and controversial career, but he is plagued by a sense of the supernatural and a spiritual intuitiveness. Joining Michael are a CIA consultant on paranormal phenomena, a washed-up local sheriff, and a former scholar of Egyptology. All must overcome their personal demons as they attempt to save the students and learn the expedition’s terrible secret....
One by one, a horror film director, a judge, and a newspaper publisher meet brutal deaths. A link exists between them, and the deaths have only begun ....
Archeologist Michael Rempart finds himself pitted against ancient demons and modern conspirators when a dying priest gives him a powerful artifact--a pearl said to have granted Genghis Khan the power, eight centuries ago, to lead his Mongol warriors across the steppes to the gates of Vienna.
The artifact has set off centuries of war and destruction as it conjures demons to play upon men's strongest ambitions and cruelest desires. Michael realizes the so-called pearl is a philosopher's stone, the prime agent of alchemy. As much as he would like to ignore the artifact, when he sees horrific deaths and experiences, first-hand, diabolical possession and affliction, he has no choice but to act, to follow a path along the Old Silk Road to a land that time forgot, and to somehow find a place that may no longer exist in the world as he knows it.
Historical, Contemporary & Fantasy Romance
Willa Cather Literary Award finalist for Best Historical Novel.
Gabriella Devere wants vengeance. She grows up quickly when she witnesses the murder of her family by a gang of outlaws, and vows to make them pay for their crime. When the law won't help her, she takes matters into her own hands.
Jess McLowry left his war-torn Southern home to head West, where he hired out his gun. When he learns what happened to Gabriella's family, and what she plans, he knows a young woman like her will have no chance against the outlaws, and vows to save her the way he couldn't save his own family.
But the price of vengeance is high and Gabriella's willingness to sacrifice everything ultimately leads to the book's deadly and startling conclusion.
Against the background of San Francisco at the time of the Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906 comes a tale of love and loss. Ruth Greer, wealthy daughter of a shipping magnate, finds a young boy who has run away from his home in Chinatown—an area of gambling parlors, opium dens, sing-song girls, as well as families trying to eke out a living. It is also home to a number of highbinder tongs, the infamous “hatchet men” of Chinese lore.
There, Ruth meets the boy’s father, Li Han-lin, the handsome, enigmatic leader of one such tong, and discovers he is neither as frightening, cruel, or wanton as reputation would have her believe. As Ruth’s fascination with the area grows, she finds herself pulled deeper into the intrigue of the lawless area, and Han-lin’s life. But the two are from completely different worlds, and when both worlds are shattered by the earthquake and fire that destroys San Francisco, they face their ultimate test.
When Lee Reynolds, nationally known television news anchor, returns to the small town where she was born to sell her now-vacant childhood home, little does she expect to find that her first love has moved back to town. Nor does she expect that her feelings for him are still so strong.
Tony Santos had been a major league baseball player, but now finds his days of glory gone. He's gone back home to raise his young son as a single dad.
Both Tony and Lee have changed a lot. Yet, being with him, she finds that in her heart, it seems like old times...
C.J. Perkins is trying to find her brother who went missing while on a Peace Corps assignment in Asia. All she knows is that the disappearance has something to do with a "White Dragon." Darius Kane, adventurer and bounty hunter, seems to be her only hope, and she practically shanghais him into helping her.
With a touch of the romantic adventure film
Romancing the Stone
, C.J. and Darius follow a trail that takes them through the narrow streets of Hong Kong, the backrooms of San Francisco's Chinatown, and the wild jungles of Borneo as they pursue both her brother and the White Dragon. The closer C.J. gets to them, the more danger she finds herself in—and it's not just danger of losing her life, but also of losing her heart.
[This is a completely revised edition of novel previously published as
Armed and Dangerous
.]
For decades, the home built by reclusive artist, Paul Squire, has stood empty on a windswept cliff overlooking the ocean. Those who attempted to live in the home soon fled in terror. Jennifer Barrett knows nothing of the history of the house she inherited. All she knows is she's glad for the chance to make a new life for herself.
It's Paul Squire's duty to rid his home of intruders, but something about this latest newcomer's vulnerable status...and resemblance of someone from his past...dulls his resolve. Jennifer would like to find a real flesh-and-blood man to liven her days and nights--someone to share her life with—but living in the artist's house, studying his paintings, she is surprised at how close she feels to him.
A compelling, prickly ghost with a tortured, guilt-ridden past, and a lonely heroine determined to start fresh, find themselves in a battle of wills and emotion in this ghostly fantasy of love, time, and chance.
o0o
Look for the books by Joanne Pence by visiting her website at
http://www.joannepence.com
, and learn about new books by signing up for her Joanne’s
New Release Mailing List
.
Table of Contents