Showing results by author "LAWRENCE J. EPSTEIN" in All Categories

It is 1940. The world’s greatest mystery writer witnesses a murder by hemlock poisoning. She accuses Katie Walker of the crime. Katie’s detective partner, Charlie Singer, seeks the real murderer. But he can’t prevent the death of the one person who can free Katie. The novel is filled with deceptive twists and the dark and deadly secrets of family life. The case’s shocking revelations change Charlie as he discovers truths within himself about love and justice.

A murder. A young detective hired by a woman about to be nominated to be the President of the United States. And then another murder. It is New York City in the explosive year of 1968. Walker West puts his life in danger to discover if a famous Senator is a killer. THE CORPSE THAT WOULDN’T SHUT UP is a mystery thriller filled with nail-biting suspense and twists. Walker’s love gets involved with another man. His beloved aunt is being blackmailed. And through it all, Walker must confront a dangerous villain who frames others and knows how to hide. Wandering through Greenwich Village’s ...

Charlie Bell tries to escape his past by moving to a small town. But he must soon deal with a double murder and take care of an abandoned and scared little girl. Charlie must deal with a detective who doesn’t trust him, a fatal illness he is trying to outrun, and his own guilt about the death of his twin sister. But Charlie is not alone. He gets help solving the murder from an unusual source: Edgar Allan Poe.

Danny Ryle is a political fixer on Long Island. When the Congressman he works for is blackmailed, Danny investigates only to walk into the middle of a murder. Aided by his father, a retired hit man, a well-connected member of the D.A.’s office, and his team of a former terrorist fighter and a woman ex-cop, Danny struggles to do good while living in a world that makes that difficult. Facing a former love who returns to start again, suspects with troubling alibis, and a wily killer, Danny is back to fix his troubled world.

Danny Cresson tries to solve a murder to comfort a widow in mourning. Danny is soon drawn into a major conspiracy involving his arch enemy Litani. It is a tense political assassination with high stakes that pits these two against each other.

Daniel Summerhill gets up one day and walks out of his college class. This novel takes place in the chaotic year of 1970 in Greenwich Village. Daniel is confused. He has to face the draft, angry parents, newly-liberated girlfriends, and total uncertainty about his future. Carefully, he decides to explore being a writer. He gets advice and meets a variety of famous and rebellious people. There is the painter who lives in a treehouse, figures in the music business, writers among the Beatniks and others. Trying to find his self and be true to it, Daniel struggles to write, to find love, and to...

New York City private detective Jack Ryder must deal with a murder and a woman he might love. Except she has a husband who is missing. It is 1943 and the Nazis are also after Ryder. He wanders the dark streets of Greenwich Village trying to save his own life and the lives of those he is supposed to protect.

It is 1944. New York City private detective Jack Ryder is given a difficult assignment to trick the Nazis as the allies prepare to attack. Ryder also helps a woman whose husband is on Death Row in Sing Sing awaiting execution for a murder. He claims he is innocent, and Ryder must find out. Ryder's helper in the diner where he has an office is viciously attacked. Ryder will stop at nothing to discover and punish the attacker. On the dark streets of Greenwich Village, Ryder is trying to save his own life and the lives of those he is supposed to protect.

It is early in 1942. The war with Germany has just begun. Jack Ryder, who calls himself a fixer rather than a detective, wanders the darkest nights to his office in a back booth at an all-night diner. Ryder is famous for killing members of the mob who have crossed their bosses by hurting innocent people. Ryder also helps ordinary people in trouble. An enemy—a homicide detective—comes to hire Ryder to find the detective’s missing sister. Ryder also gets involved in going up against some Nazis in New York and saving a woman on the run from gangsters.

Walker West is in trouble. Caught in a dangerous explosion, he saves a woman from death, only later to discover that she is under arrest for murder. Determined to help her, West faces danger, the challenging control of his wealthy Aunt Agatha, and a group of suspects who are even more angry at him than his friends and family. Walker gets help from a mysterious protector and an attractive assistant his aunt hires. Traveling around New York City in 1968, Walker struggles to identify the killer and stay alive.

Exiles is set in Paris in 1925. The protagonist, Daniel Levin, heads there to become a writer. He must solve a murder among the famous Lost Generation writers such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Gertrude Stein. He is aided by Sylvia Beach, the sharp-eyed and sharp-tongued owner of the famed bookstore Shakespeare and Company. Daniel must also deal with the hidden wounds he suffered as a soldier in the First World War and his fatal attraction to one of suspects in the murder.

Danny Cresson, a young mystery writer, is sent on a mission to Israel by his dying mother. It is a trip that will change his life. He doesn’t even arrive there before someone on the plane over is stabbed to death. He works on solving that killing. Danny also meets an Israeli journalist who is determined to expand her talents, even as she guides Danny and falls in love with him. Additionally, Danny learns secret information about his long-dead father and tries to atone for his father’s death. Filled with local sites and sounds, the novel follows Danny on an adventure that makes him ...

Ethan Brady had a romance with a woman forty years ago. Now she has been murdered, and he must solve her killing. Set in New York and New Orleans in 1963, this suspenseful thriller deals with unique ways of murder and an unusual romance.

It is the first week of December 1941. Charlie Singer is desperately seeking his father’s killer as he also deals with the case of witnesses to a bank robbery being systematically murdered. His partner, Katie Walker, must master the art of confidence games to help in these efforts. Together, Charlie and Katie confront Murder Incorporated, the horrifying prospect of a Japanese attack on America, and wounding personal secrets that hinder their investigation and their romance. Their efforts to solve the cases take them to such places as Sing Sing prison, inside a radio studio, the Copacabana...

Ethan Brady's son is chief of police. When the son thinks a man has been wrongly accused of murder, he asks his father to investigate. Ethan gets help from a woman who is a writer investigating the crime. Ethan must deal with friends who are suspects, the challenges of aging, and a ruthless killer.

The little girl had to run. She had just seen her parents murdered. And the murderer had seen her. Saved by the sound of police sirens, six year old Jennifer ran to a neighbor because he had helped her before. She had been hurt, and Danny Ryle gave her what she believed was a magical band aid. Desperate, she begged Danny not to let her be sent to a strange home. Impressed by the girl's intelligence and kindness, Danny and his friends determined to protect her by finding the killer and hiding her from the world. Aided by Ari Eilat, who had hunted terrorists in Israel, and Betsy Revere, a ...

After a little girl has gone missing in 1930 London, Agatha Christie and other writers as well as director Alfred Hitchcock hire Daniel Levin to find the girl. Levin discovers his efforts include confronting a secret group that wants to rid society of the weak and undesirable. He must confront his antagonist, a brutal killer sent by the growing Nazi party in Germany to help the secret group. Daniel must also deal with the hidden wounds he suffered as a soldier in the First World War and the emotional roadblocks to love. The principal subplot of the novel takes place in contemporary times. ...

It is 1943. New York City private detective Jack Ryder gets an urgent request from the FBI. Ryder is supposed to kill a dangerous Nazi. He also must help a client who fell in love with a woman he saw on a train platform. The client doesn't know her name but has a clue in the jacket she was wearing. Ryder aids an emotionally damaged veteran, but the two of them are in love with the waitress Ruth. Only one of them can win her heart.

The Land of Eighteen Dreams is an episodic novel made up of chronologically-connected stories, each of which is self-contained. All are in the form of a narrative by Lily Siegel, who uses each incident to describe her relationship with her grandfather, Benjamin Kagan. Benjamin describes his life and, in doing so, simultaneously offers the wider story of American Jews over the last century, and distills the inherited folk wisdom of Eastern European Jews.

A shot is fired on a starry night. A woman lies dead. Her husband is accused of murder. The man begs Danny Ryle, a political fixer, to find the real killer. Danny is unsure until someone close to him is arrested. Then, facing danger, Danny cannot be stopped. He is helped by his team, a tough ex-cop woman and a terrorist hunter. Danny faces suspense, an attack on his life, odd twists, and surprises at every turn. Set on Long Island in 1983, this mystery novel never stops to give Danny, or the readers, a moment to pause. Seasoned by humor, rapid-fire dialogue, and quirky characters, the novel...