Narrator

Emily Sutton-Smith

Emily Sutton-Smith
  • Buffalo police detective Lauren Riley risks her life to close the book for good on a killer who’s never paid for his crimes.

    When cold case detective Lauren Riley returns to work months after being stabbed by a fellow police officer, it’s clear that her troubles are far from over. The body of a young woman has been found in the same woods as a murder victim from one of Lauren’s most horrifying cases. It doesn’t take long for Lauren to be back at square one confronting David Spencer, the quietly deranged man she could never prove was a killer. Lauren convinces the police chief to put together a task force to uncover the connections between the brutal slaying of both women and the murder of two cops. But things go south quickly, forcing Lauren into a deadly game that she can’t afford to lose.

  • Cold case detective Lauren Riley wakes up in the hospital certain of two things: she was stabbed and left for dead … and the person who did it was a cop.

    After being brutally stabbed at her desk late one night, Lauren Riley works her way backwards through the haze to piece together who attacked her and why. A mysterious phone message forces her to enlist the help of a retired lieutenant to track down a witness who is desperate not to be found. As she digs into the Buffalo Police Department’s hidden past she uncovers a terrible secret, one a fellow officer would kill to protect.

    Packed with suspense and featuring a detective who “relentlessly—and with morbid humor—gets the job done” (Booklist), The Murder Book continues a series praised by Kirkus Reviews as “an excellent police procedural combined with a psychological thriller.”

  • Lauren’s job as a cold case homicide detective is her life. And life just got complicated.

    Lauren Riley is an accomplished detective who has always been on the opposite side of the courtroom from slick defense attorney Frank Violanti. But now he’s begging to hire her as a private investigator to help clear his client of murder. At first Lauren refuses, wanting nothing to do with the media circus surrounding the case—until she meets the eighteen-year-old suspect.

    To keep an innocent teen from life in prison, Lauren must unravel the conflicting evidence and changing stories to get at the buried facts. But the more she digs, the more she discovers that nothing is what it first appears to be. As Lauren puts her career and life in danger, doubt lurks on every corner—and so does her stalker.

  • A murder of an Icelandic man during a Full Cold Moon reminds Lauren Riley of a previous case she failed to solve. She is determined not to let it happen again.

    Since her partner on the Cold Case team has been out of action after being shot in the line of duty, Lauren Riley has been working Homicide. Her latest case involves an Icelandic man murdered on the streets of Buffalo mere feet from his hotel.

    The brutality of the case hits Lauren hard. When she realizes the murder was committed on the night of a Full Cold Moon, it triggers memories of the first cold case she investigated that she’s been unable to solve.

    Lauren is determined not to fail again but when she is involved in a shooting with a suspect, she finds the case may be taken out of her hands … especially when it gains attention from the Icelandic government.

  • From Pulitzer Prize finalist Margaret Verble comes a multilayered, wholly original epic of the American frontier.

    A baby, a Black hired hand, a bay horse, a gun, and a neighbor have all gone missing in the same corner of the Cherokee Nation West. Cherokee America Singer, known as Check, is none too pleased with these developments. As a wealthy farmer, the mother of five boys, and the matriarch of her family, she is accustomed to wielding authority. And she’s determined to find out what’s going on.

    In the aftermath of the Civil War, complex alliances and simmering race and culture clashes unite and divide the people living on Cherokee lands. Tensions mount and violence escalates, and the long arm of white law encroaches further into Indian Territory. Determined to survive and thrive on their own terms after decades of betrayal and hardship, Check’s family, friends, and neighbors must come together to avenge a crime, outwit federal authorities, and protect their sovereignty.

    Inspired by Margaret Verble’s family history and written with dry humor and a lot of heart, Cherokee America is a different kind of Western, one told from a Native American point of view and with a mixed-race woman at its center.

    Check—member of a distinguished Cherokee family, daughter of a famous soldier and a slaveholder, wife of an abolitionist—is a necessary, revelatory addition to the literature of the American frontier.

  • A psychic and a serial killer play a cross-country game of cat-and-mouse in this thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Kiss Her Goodbye.

    The Night Watchman is ready to kill—again. After thirty-five years in prison, he is free to commit the same twisted atrocities that once made him as notorious as the Zodiac Killer and Jack the Ripper. Now, at last, his moment has come.

    Through her television appearances, renowned clairvoyant Lucinda Sloan helps police capture America’s most wanted. Unfortunately, she’s also captured the eye of the Night Watchman. Once he learns that Sloan “sees” his crimes, it’s time to play.

    The first victim is someone she knows—a personal shock that brings the psychic closer to her ex-lover, Detective Randall Barakat. Then two more murders in Chicago and Denver make her realize that the Night Watchman is toying with her. Each victim wears a wristwatch bearing a message … and each message is a warning for Lucinda that she’ll soon be the next to die.

  • A seaside retreat has just become a killer’s favorite playground.

    It’s summer on the Jersey Shore. Children play on the beach. Husbands are off working in the city. And the surf echoes in the night. Here, in this perfect place, a serial killer has no worries in the world—except choosing the next victim.

    Cam Hastings has come to Long Beach Island with her teenage daughter and the hope that maybe she can save her failed marriage. Cam has never stopped loving her husband, Mike, nor has she been able to outrun her flaws and demons—a vanished mother, a lost sister, and the ugly visions she has of missing children.

    Now, Cam is about to step over the edge. For once, she will act on one of her visions—and then face the consequences. For a killer has just struck again. And for Cam, and the people she loves most, fear has come home for good.

  • When a rainmaker is bludgeoned to death in the pitch-blackness of a colossal dust storm, small-town sheriff Temple Jennings shoulders yet another burden in the hard times of the 1930s Dust Bowl. The killing only magnifies Temple’s ongoing troubles: a formidable opponent in the upcoming election, the repugnant burden of enforcing farm foreclosures, and his wife’s lingering grief over the loss of their eight-year-old son.

    As the sheriff and his young deputy investigate the murder, their suspicions focus on a teenager, Carmine, serving with the Civilian Conservation Corps. The deputy, himself a former CCCer, struggles with remaining loyal to the corps while pursuing his own aspirations as a lawman.

    When the investigation closes in on Carmine, Temple’s wife, Etha, quickly becomes convinced of his innocence and sets out to prove it. But Etha’s own probe soon reveals a darker web of secrets, which imperil Temple’s chances of reelection and cause the husband and wife to confront their long-standing differences about the nature of grief.

  • In a sensational follow-up to Echoes of Sherlock Holmes and In the Company of Sherlock Holmes, a brand-new anthology of stories inspired by the Arthur Conan Doyle canon

    For the Sake of the Game is the latest volume in the award-winning series from New York Times bestselling editors Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger, with stories of Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, and friends in a variety of eras and forms. King and Klinger have a simple formula: ask some of the world’s greatest writers―regardless of genre―to be inspired by the stories of Arthur Conan Doyle.

    The results are surprising and joyous. Some tales are pastiches, featuring the recognizable figures of Holmes and Watson; others step away in time or place to describe characters and stories influenced by the Holmes world. Some of the authors spin whimsical tales of fancy; others tell hardcore thrillers or puzzling mysteries. One beloved author writes a song; two others craft a melancholy tale of insectoid analysis.

    This is not a volume for listeners who crave a steady diet of stories about Holmes and Watson on Baker Street. Rather, it is for the generations of people who were themselves inspired by the classic tales, and who are prepared to let their imaginations roam freely.

    Features stories by Peter S. Beagle, Rhys Bowen, Reed Farrel Coleman, Jamie Freveletti, Alan Gordon, Gregg Hurwitz, Toni L. P. Kelner, William Kotzwinkle and Joe Servello, Harley Jane Kozak, D. P. Lyle, Weston Ochse, Zoe Sharp, Duane Swierczynski, and F. Paul Wilson

  • The official novelization of the revamp of the classic horror film Halloween

    In 1978, Laurie Strode survived an encounter with Michael Myers, a masked figure who killed her friends and terrorized the town of Haddonfield, Illinois, on Halloween night. Myers was later gunned down, apprehended, and committed to Smith’s Grove State Hospital.

    For forty years, memories of that nightmarish ordeal have haunted Laurie and now Myers is back once again on Halloween, having escaped a routine transfer, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake. This time, Laurie is prepared with years of survival training to protect herself, her daughter Karen and her granddaughter Allyson, a teenager separated from her family and enjoying Halloween festivities.

  • In her most powerful novel yet, New York Times bestselling author Marie Bostwick weaves the uplifting story of three grief support group dropouts—women united in loss and rescued through friendship.

    Fifteen years ago, Grace Saunders vowed to take her beloved husband for better or worse. Now she’s coming to terms with difficult choices as she crafts a memory quilt from scraps of their life together—a life torn to shreds by an accident that has left him in a coma. Enduring months of limbo, Grace is at least not alone.

    Nan has been widowed for twenty years, but now, with her children grown, her home feels painfully empty. Even the company of her golden retriever, Blixen, and a series of other rescue dogs, can’t fill the void. Then there’s Monica, a feisty woman with a biting wit who’s reeling following her husband’s death—and the revelation of his infidelity.

    As for Grace, a chance evening with a man she barely knows brings a glimmer of joy she hasn’t felt since the tragedy—along with feelings of turmoil and guilt. But her struggle to cope will force all three women to face their fears, share their deepest secrets—and lean on one another as they move from grief and isolation to hope and a second chance at happiness.

  • Now the director of the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security, Brooke Fairfax has one objective: stay on top of all threats to the people and property of the Commonwealth. The position is thankless and never-ending. It even pulls her out of Declan O’Roark’s bed in the middle of the night.

    A power grid failure has struck Kentucky’s largest city, and Brooke assumes the role of lead coordinator for the investigation. The power outage pushes the city to the brink of chaos. Police, fire, and rescue workers are overwhelmed—their efforts crippled by failed communication systems, looters ransacking businesses, hospitals running on emergency generators, and people desperate to find safety in a city quickly eroding into lawlessness.

    While experts scramble to restore the grid before thousands lose their lives, Declan receives word from an intelligence contact that an Eastern European cell of cyber terrorists is looking to take down the power grid for the entire Eastern Seaboard. Brooke and Declan must combine their efforts before the next attack. But just as they get close to the truth, the attackers turn their attention on stopping their greatest threat—Brooke and Declan.

  • After dozens of Lexington, Kentucky’s forgotten—mostly prostitutes and the homeless—swamp local hospitals from apparent overdoses over the 4th of July weekend, Kentucky cops soon discover a new synthetic form of heroin is infecting their communities, and that gangs—namely the outlaw motorcycle gang Samael’s Army—are responsible for using a “disposable” population to test the new drug.

    Soon after, the deadly new drug claims the daughter of a US senator, and FBI Director Jack Waller assigns Brooke Fairfax to the case. Because the synthetic opioid was created in a lab, the feds turn to the expertise of billionaire chemist Declan O’Roark, who is all too happy to lend a hand if it will bring him closer to Brooke.

    As Brooke and Declan are forced to work together, Declan attempts to tear down the barriers around Brooke’s heart. But when Brooke gets drawn into the depths of the outlaw motorcycle gang she’s investigating, she and Declan both fear for her life.

  • Bill Pronzini is crime-writing royalty. His more than eighty published novels have won or been nominated for Edgar, Hammett, Anthony, Shamus, and Macavity awards—a clean sweep of the crime fiction award field—and received rave reviews from critics. He crafts masterful stories, often from multiple perspectives, in which the human condition is on full display. The Violated is no exception.

    In Echo Park, in the small town of Santa Rita, California, the mutilated body of Martin Torrey is found by two passersby. A registered sex offender, Torrey has been a suspect in a string of recent rapes, and instant suspicion for his murder falls on the relatives and friends of the women attacked. Police chief Griffin Kells and detective Robert Ortiz are under increasing pressure from the public and from a mayor demanding results in a case that has no easy solution.

    Pronzini cleverly unfolds the case through alternating perspectives—Martin Torrey’s wife, caught between her grief and the fear her husband was guilty; the outraged husbands of the women violated; the enterprising editor of the local paper; the mayor concerned most with his own ratings; the detectives, often spinning in circles—until a surprising break leads to a completely unexpected conclusion. The Violated is Bill Pronzini at the height of his storytelling powers.

  • The tight-knit residents of Blue Moon Mountain, nestled high in the Colorado Mountains, form an interconnected community of those living off the land, stunned by the beauty and isolation all around them. So when, at the onset of winter, the town veterinarian commits a violent act, the repercussions of that tragedy will be felt all across the mountainside, upending their lives and causing their paths to twist and collide in unexpected ways.

    The housecleaner rediscovering her sexual appetite, the farrier who must take in his traumatized niece, the grocer and her daughter, the therapist and the teacher, reaching out to the world in new and surprising ways, and the ragged couple trapped in a cycle of addiction and violence. They will all rise and converge upon the blue hour—the l’heure bleu—the hour of twilight, a time of desire, lust, honesty. The strong, spirited people of Blue Moon Mountain must learn to navigate the line between violence and sex, tenderness and the hard edge of yearning, and the often confusing paths of mourning and lust.

    Writing with passion for rural lives and the natural world, Laura Pritchett, who has been called “one of the most accomplished writers of the American West,” graces the land of desire in vivid prose, exploring the lengths these moving, deeply felt characters—some of whom we’ve met in Pritchett’s previous work—will traverse to protect their own.

  • Just days before the running of the biggest Thoroughbred horse race in the world, an act of bioterrorism kills Kentucky’s lieutenant governor, and former FBI Special Agent Brooke Fairfax receives a video of the murder from her longtime anonymous source. When Brooke discovers domestic terrorists are actually after the governor—her late husband’s brother—and that the radicals are eyeing more targets, she heads to Kentucky to stop the threat.

    Shortly after the political assassination, the FBI zeroes in on one person: international mogul Declan O’Roark. Though Brooke has been out of the game since her husband was murdered, her former boss thinks she is the perfect candidate to connect Declan to the crime.

    Despite the FBI clearly establishing means and opportunity, Declan remains unfazed; his motives have nothing to do with murder, but with getting closer to Brooke Fairfax. And Brooke finds the case becoming even more unclear as she falls for the FBI’s number one suspect.