Discretion Assured

Murphy Calls in a Specialist

2011-04-02T07:36:00.000-07:00

We read in Scripture, " “He that toucheth pitch, shall be defiled ..."
And so it proves for Murphy.
His massive powers of detection quickly penetrate to the heart of the case -- its dreadful truth --
but here, mere knowledge does not suffice.
Shaken, infected by what he most abhors... Murphy must call in a Professional.

Click to download this new Murphy Brothers story for Kindle, just 99 cents.

Steve Hockensmith

2011-01-25T15:01:00.000-08:00

Though the town elders of Louisville, Ky., have yet to acknowledge it with so much as a single commemorative plaque, Steve Hockensmith was born in the Derby City on August 17, 1968. The first two decades of his life passed uneventfully, the only notable highlight being a short stint as an intern at People magazine, an experience that allowed Hockensmith to realize his lifelong dream -- crank calling Crispin Glover.

Despite (or perhaps because of) such lapses in his professionalism, Hockensmith became an entertainment journalist, writing about pop culture and the film industry for The Hollywood Reporter, The Chicago Tribune, Newsday and lots of magazines and newspapers you’ve never heard of. Sensing that print journalism was going the way of Raphus cucullatus, however, Hockensmith switched to an industry that he knew would offer dependable stability for decades to come: publishing.

Hockensmith is not known for his business acumen.

Nevertheless, his first novel, the Sherlockian mystery/Western Holmes on the Range, was a finalist for Edgar, Anthony, Shamus and Dilys Awards in 2007. Three sequels followed (On the Wrong Track, The Black Dove and the Nero Award finalist The Crack in the Lens), and a fifth book in the series, World's Greatest Sleuth!, will be released in January.

In 2010, Hockensmith tried his hand at romzomcoms (romantic comedies with zombies) with Dawn of the Dreadfuls. Though a prequel to the hit “mash-up” Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Hockensmith’s novel was 100% original. Well, 100% new, anyway. Most of the characters and settings came courtesy of Jane Austen, who’s been a real doll about the whole thing and hasn’t complained yet. In March 2011, Hockensmith will complete the PPZ trilogy (yes, it's a trilogy now) with the novel Dreadfully Ever After.

Though he considers himself a Midwesterner at heart, Hockensmith currently lives in California’s Bay Area. He says he’s adjusted to life on the West Coast, but confesses that he still misses thunderstorms, snow and Long John Silver’s Seafood Shoppes. He shares his home with the perfect wife, the perfect daughter, the perfect son and a slightly imperfect dog.

Here you can read his short story "Dear Mr. Holmes."

Books by Steve Hockensmith

Mysteries

Holmes on the Range--The Wild West gets even wilder when cowboy brothers Otto “Big Red” Amlingmeyer and Gustav “Old Red” Amlingmeyer set out to catch a killer using the methods of the late, great Sherlock Holmes. The only thing standing between them and the truth: stampedes, rustlers, Holmes-hating English aristocrats and a cannibal named “Hungry Bob.”

On the Wrong Track--Big Red and Old Red sign on as guards for the hated Southern Pacific Railroad and quickly find themselves headed full-steam toward disaster. The train they’re on is robbed, the baggage man loses his head (literally) and the passenger list includes a drunken Pinkerton, a secretive Chinese doctor, a mysterious beauty named Diana and a deadly swamp adder with a taste for cowboys.

The Black Dove--Big Red and Old Red hit the wild (not to mention dangerous) streets of San Francisco and almost immediately run afoul of Chinatown crime lords and Barbary Coast cutthroats. Good thing their new, if duplicitous, friend Diana is along for the ride. But can even her wily charms save them when they stumble into the middle of a tong war?

The Crack in the Lens--This time it’s personal. Years before, Old Red lost his one true love to a brutal killer. Now — he hopes — he has the deducifying know-how to track down the killer. Yet how can he and Big Red even start the search when everyone in town wants the secrets of the past buried forever...and the brothers buried with them?

World’s Greatest Sleuth!--A detectiving contest brings Big Red and Old Red to Chicago during the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. Unfortunately, someone commits a dark deed in “the White City”: The man behind the competition is found dead. Old Red knows it’s murder, but no one seems to believe him but his brother and an old friend who could hold the key to the mystery — and their future.

Naughty: Nine Tales of Christmas Crime--"It's the most wonderful time of the year," the old song tells us. But that doesn't mean the people celebrating it are always so nice. Criminals get the Christmas spirit, too! In this collection of hilarious short stories, you'll see what the thieves, killers, psychos and scumbags are up to come the yuletide...and it's not caroling door to door. Well, not unless they're casing the neighborhood for a break-in, as a rag-tag gang does in the title story. You'll also meet a mall elf menaced by a very, very bad Santa (in "I Killed Santa Claus,") a London police inspector hunting for the man who murdered Ebenezer Scrooge (in "Humbug"), a trucker out to save his shipment of Cabbage Patch Dolls from bumbling hijackers (in "Special Delivery") and many more characters you'll never forget. Originally published in Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazines, these stories are sure to have you ho-ho-hoing from the first page to the last!

Non-Mysteries

Dawn of the Dreadfuls--Jane Austen’s Bennet family has a lot more to worry about than matchmaking and avoiding scandal when the dead start clawing their way from their graves. It’s time for Elizabeth and her sisters to set aside their ladylike ways and take up “the Deadly Arts.” But can they master zombie-slaying before the brains-craving unmentionables overrun all England? And will Elizabeth lose her heart to her stern new instructor, the mysterious Geoffrey Hawksworth, or the eccentric (and perhaps even mad) Dr. Keckilpenny? And will Jane resist the amorous advances of the libidinous Lord Lumpley — perhaps with the help of the dashing Lt. Tindall? And just what is that awful howling sound coming from the attic? Dawn of the Dreadfuls, the prequel to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, has all the answers.

Dreadfully Ever After--Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and its prequel, Dawn of the Dreadfuls, were both New York Times best sellers, with a combined 1.3 million copies in print. Now the PPZ trilogy comes to a thrilling conclusion with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dreadfully Ever After. The story opens with our newly married protagonists, Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam Darcy, defending their village from an army of flesh-eating “unmentionables.” But the honeymoon has barely begun when poor Mr. Darcy is nipped by a rampaging dreadful. Elizabeth knows the proper course of action is to promptly behead her husband (and then burn the corpse, just to be safe). But when she learns of a miracle antidote under development in London, she realizes there may be one last chance to save her true love—and for everyone to live happily ever after.

L.J. Sellers

2011-01-24T15:16:00.000-08:00

L.J. Sellers is an award-winning journalist and the author of the bestselling Detective Jackson mystery/suspense series and other standalone thrillers. Her novels have been highly praised by Mystery Scene and Spinetingler magazines, and the Jackson series is on Amazon Kindle’s bestselling police procedural list. When not plotting murders, she enjoys performing standup comedy, cycling, social networking, and attending mystery conferences. She’s also been known to jump out of airplanes. You can visit her website here.

Here you can read "Dirty Jobs" by L.J. Sellers.

Books by L.J. Sellers

The Sex Club--A dead girl, a ticking bomb, a Bible study that's not what it appears to be, and a detective who won't give up.

Secrets to Die For--A brutal murder, a suspect with a strange story, a missing woman with secrets to hide—can Jackson discover the truth in time to save her?

Thrilled to Death--Two missing women with nothing in common, a dead body, and a suspect who hasn’t left his house in a year—Jackson's most puzzling cast yet.

Passions of the Dead--A murdered family, two addicted suspects, and a deadly home invasion lead Jackson on the most disturbing case of his career.

The Baby Thief--Jenna just wanted a baby, but her doctor had other ideas. Kidnapped and drugged, she has no idea where she or how to escape.

The Suicide Effect--Sula overhears a shocking discovery at the drug company she works for, and soon she is running for her life.

Vicki Delany

2011-01-24T15:04:00.000-08:00

Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific crime writers. She writes everything from standalone novels of psychological suspense such as Scare the Light Away and Burden of Memory, to the Constable Molly Smith books, a traditional village/police procedural series set in the British Columbia Interior, including In the Shadow of the Glacier and Negative Image, to a light-hearted historical series, Gold Digger and Gold Fever, set in the raucous heyday of the Klondike Gold Rush.
Winter of Secrets received a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly, and about Negative Image, the Sherbrooke Record said, Delany is steadily making her way toward the top tier of Canadian crime writers, and readers can only hope for more.

Having taken early retirement from her job as a systems analyst in the high-pressure financial world, Vicki is settling down to the rural life in bucolic, Prince Edward County, Ontario where she rarely wears a watch. The next book in the Constable Molly Smith series, Among the Departed, will be published by Poisoned Pen Press in May 2011.

You can read her short story "My Seat" here.

You read more about her, you can visit her blog or her author page.

Books by Vicki Delany

The Constable Molly Smith series:

Among the Departed (coming May 2011)--Fifteen years ago a young girl by the name of Moonlight Smith went to her best friend Nicky Nowak’s house for a sleepover. Moonlight joined the family for breakfast the following morning and was then picked up by her mother. Shortly after, Mr. Nowak went for a walk.

He was never seen again.

It is now autumn in the mountain town of Trafalgar, British Columbia. A police dog is called out to help in the search for a child lost in the wilderness. The dog uncovers something else: human remains.

When Sergeant John Winters reopens the investigation he finds a shattered family and townsfolk desperate to keep their secrets.

Among the Departed is much more than a mystery novel: it is also a story of love – new and old, long-concealed, life-affirming and fatal.

Negative Image--What would you do if you believe the person you trust most in the world has betrayed you? What would you do if you discover that the person you trust most in the world believes you capable of betrayal?

When his wife’s former fiancé is found dead of a single shot to the back of the head, Trafalgar police Sergeant John Winters is forced to make the most difficult decision of his life: loyalty to his job or to his wife. Meanwhile, tragedy strikes the heart of Constable Molly Smith’s family.

Winter of Secrets--Christmas in Trafalgar, B.C. The skiing vacation of a group of rowdy students takes a tragic turn when their car plunges into the icy river. Constable Molly Smith and Sergeant John Winters discover that sometimes an accident isn’t as it first appears, and no amount of privilege and help you cheat death.

Valley of the Lost--In the bucolic mountain town of Trafalgar, British Columbia, a young woman is found dead of a heroin overdose, her baby lying at her side. Marks of restraint indicate that the death might not have been completely accidental. Only two things are known about the dead woman: her first name is Ashley, and she has a three-month-old baby boy. Before the police can discover who killed her, and why, the first have to find out who she was.

In the Shadow of the Glacier--A draft dodger commemoration is threatening to tear apart the bucolic mountain town of Trafalgar, B,C., while Rookie Constable Molly Smith and Sergeant John Winters search for a killer. The first in first in a traditional mystery series featuring Constable Smith, Sergeant Winters, and the town in the shadow of the glacier, Trafalgar, British Columbia

The Klondike Gold Rush Series:

Gold Fever--It’s the great Klondike Gold Rush, and Fiona MacGillivray and the Savoy Dance Hall are busier than ever. There’s something familiar about an arrival’s accent, and Fiona is determined to keep the woman away from her son Angus, but Angus has a better idea. When a dancer is murdered after an altercation with Fiona, the Mounties are determined to get their man – or woman.

Gold Digger--Gold Digger is a light-hearted historical mystery, peopled with the array of intrepid characters who flooded into the Klondike to make Dawson, in its very short heyday, the most exciting town in the world. At the centre of the hullabaloo is Fiona MacGillivray: ambitious, resourceful, unscrupulous, and (as she says so herself) the most beautiful woman in Dawson.

Standalone Novels of Suspense

Burden of Memory--September 1939: A beautiful Irish maid realizes that her scheming has led to a fatal mistake. A plain, but determined, nursing sister prepares to head for Europe, and war.

September 2006: Elaine Benson arrives at Muskoka’s Millionaires’ Row to assist an elderly woman with the writing of her memoirs, and unwittingly combines the separate threads of three tragedies into a dangerous knot.
Scare the Light Away--Interweaves two generations of strong women – an English war bride and her Canadian daughter – into a quilt of old betrayals, modern mystery, and contemporary redemption.
This time Rebecca can’t run away from her family’s troubles: a Hope River girl has gone missing and her brother stands accused.

Discretion Assured Rises in the Ratings!

2011-01-19T14:08:00.000-08:00

We're at the bottom of the first page of returns in Google on the selectors "discretion assured." Strangely, we're number two when you just enter discretion assured without quote marks. And we're competing against a movie titled "Discretion Assured", which is the same name as the name of our blog, namely (no pun intended), "Discretion Assured".

So what will it take for Discretion Assured to reach the top of a search on the phrase Discretion Assured or "Discretion Assured"? Certainly not using the name more in blogs, I mean that doesn't really work. Or does it?

Debbi Mack

2011-01-18T14:26:00.001-08:00

Debbi Mack started life in New York City, but grew up in various places around the country, ending up in Maryland where she sets her mysteries. Her hardboiled mysteries, IDENTITY CRISIS and LEAST WANTED, feature intrepid crime-solving lawyer Stephanie Ann “Sam” McRae. A 2010 Derringer Award nominee, Debbi’s short stories have also been published in an anthology of her work called FIVE UNEASY PIECES, as well as in CHESAPEAKE CRIMES, CHESAPEAKE CRIMES: THEY HAD IT COMIN’, and The Back Alley Webzine. Debbi is a former attorney, who quit practicing law to become a full-time writer. She’s previously worked as a newswire reporter,reference librarian and freelance writer/researcher (as well as a school bus driver and photography model—but that was a long time ago). With degrees in journalism, law and library science, she’s basically too educated to take any job at this point. Debbi, her husband and their cats live in Columbia MD.

Read Debbi Mack's short story A Woman Who Thinks from her anthology Five Uneasy Pieces.

Books by Debbie Mack

Identity Crisis--A domestic abuse case turns deadly, when the alleged abuser is killed and Sam McRae's client disappears. When a friend asks Sam to find Melanie Hayes, the Maryland attorney is drawn into a complex case of murder and identity theft, that has her running from the mob, breaking into a strip club and forming a shaky alliance with an offbeat private investigator to get to the truth about Melanie and her boyfriend. With her career and life on the line, Sam's search takes her from the blue-collar Baltimore suburbs to the mansions of Gibson Island. Along the way, she learns that false identities can hide dark secrets, and those secrets can destroy lives.

Least Wanted--Maryland lawyer Stephanie Ann "Sam" McRae has two tough cases that quickly turn worse, when both clients -- a poor black girl and a white, middle-class man -- are accused of murder. Sam's inquiries into the cases lead her to Washington, DC's suburban ghettos where she discovers an odd link between them: the seamy world of girl gangs and computer pornography.

The stakes rise considerably as more people die at the hands of a maniacal killer who'll do anything to keep Sam from learning the truth. Sam races to clear her clients before she becomes the next victim.

Five Uneasy Pieces--The short stories in this novella-length collection share the theme of having an odd twist or edginess that makes them gritty, slightly off-balance or unusual. They represent a range of genres from hardboiled mystery to noir to parody. Altogether, this collection has something for everyone who enjoys dark or edgy crime fiction. Includes the first three chapters of Least Wanted, the sequel to Identity Crisis.

The Honor of Israel Gow

2011-01-18T06:51:00.000-08:00

Here in the Northeast we're snowed in again, so here's a classic story from a master of mystery for your reading pleasure.

The Honor of Israel Gow, by Gilbert Keith Chesterton

Lights! Camera! Mystery!

2011-01-18T05:55:00.000-08:00

Many writers are making movie trailers for their books or offering clips of their media appearances. This is a great way to connect with readers in a personal and engaging fashion.
Check out these examples!
Murphy Brothers Private Investigators by David Justice
Take the Monkeys and Run by Karen Cantwell
Videos featuring Jeri Westerson
Poison Pen Promo by Sheila Lowe
Identity Crisis by Debbie Mack

Simon Wood

2011-01-18T05:00:00.000-08:00

Simon Wood is an ex-racecar driver, a licensed pilot and occasional PI. He was born and raised in the UK, but moved to the US 13 years ago after falling for an American girl. That move changed more than his martial status. It changed his career from engineering to writing. With his first publication in 2000, he hasn’t looked back. He’s the author of a dozen books. His short fiction has garnered him an Anthony Award and a CWA Dagger Award nomination, as well as several readers’ choice awards. Curious people can learn more at his author page.

Here you can read The Taskmasters, from his short story collection, Asking for Trouble.

Books by Simon Wood

THE FALL GUY--Todd Collins has failed in every job he's ever undertaken, but that all changes when he backs his jalopy in a shiny, new Porsche belonging to a drug dealer. When the police stop the drug dealer for a broken taillight that Todd has caused and discover a cocaine shipment, a West Coast kingpin holds Todd responsible. On the run from organized crime, Todd discovers his true calling.

LOWLIFES--San Francisco Detective Larry Hayes thinks he's hit bottom when he wakes up in an alley after a bad trip with no memory of the last four hours. This is only the beginning of his problems. Two blocks away, Hayes' informant, a homeless man named Noble Jon, lies dead, beaten and stabbed. The eerie pangs of guilt seep into Hayes. Is he Jon's killer? The mounting evidence says so. Hayes mounts his own investigation to stay one step ahead of murder charge and disappears amongst the city's homeless community.

WORKING STIFFS--The workplace is a dangerous place. The unscrupulous are primed and ready to take advantage of the innocent and naïve. A slight indiscretion can cost the employee everything. A new position can turn a person into someone they are not. Those at the top can be toppled and those at the bottom can be crushed.

Karen Cantwell

2011-01-17T15:48:00.000-08:00

I have been writing plays and short stories for many years, some of which were published in various college literary magazines. More recently, my short story “The Recollections of Rosabelle Raines,” was published in the mystery anthology Chesapeake Crimes: They Had it Comin'.

But I had always wanted to write a novel. I found that more difficult. Finally, a few years ago I became inspired to write my first novel, Take the Monkeys and Run, a comedy-mystery, inspired, to some degree by a true monkey sighting. Because I love to laugh as well as make other people laugh, I have the most fun imagineable writing the character Barbara Marr as well as her friends and adversaries. When I set out to write this book, I knew I wanted to write something that readers would say, “Now that was FUN.” I HOPE I have achieved that goal. And if I did, please feel free to drop me a line at and let me know! I love to hear from readers. (especially if they LIKE the book!)

These days, I can be found pecking away at my laptop, conjuring the second Barbara Marr novel, Citizen Insane.

Karen's short story Taming the Hulk.

Books by Karen Cantwell

Take the Monkeys and Run

Soccer mom and film lover, Barbara Marr is on the brink of a dream: launching her own movie review website. But on her 45th birthday, this stay-at-home mother of three unwittingly launches herself and her suburban housewife friends into the middle of their own explosive action adventure just like the movies – except these bullets are real.

To read reviews of her book, visit Karen's author blog.

Maria Schneider

2011-01-17T15:31:00.000-08:00

A few years ago, I decided I wanted to be a writer. I gathered up my computer, memory cards (because you definitely want to back this stuff up!), and dictionary.

It’s a slow journey, one with pitfalls, cliffs, boulders and every now and then a peaceful meadow with a clear brook. Surprisingly, the peaceful meadows aren’t publishing credits, they are just moments where I’m doing what I want to do, where the writing is clicking, where my characters are fascinating and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Maria Schneider grew up in New Mexico where the desert environment required that she embellish the landscape with her imagination. After working in the computer industry for twelve years, she decided technology moved too slowly, and again put her imagination to work, creating messes and then inventing characters to handle all the clean up. She currently resides near Austin, Texas.

In Haunting Clues by Maria Schneider, Max has been hired to expel a ghost from a mansion. To deal with the dead, though, he must first disentangle the secret vices of the living

Books by Maria Schneider

Sedona O’Hala Series
Executive Lunch (A Sedona O'Hala Mystery)--Sedona is given the opportunity of a lifetime: play an up-and-coming executive with all the trappings of wealth with someone else footing the bill. The catch: find out who is stealing company funds before the criminals find out that their program is being debugged.
Executive Retention is the second in the Sedona O’Hala series. After solving one case of corporate crime, Sedona expected to get her peaceful life back. Problem: She is still a manager at Strandfrost, and there is still rampant jealousy over her promotion. Is the danger of being railroaded by her not-so-illustrious colleagues worse than taking a new undercover job from Steve Huntington?

Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Mystery – Moon Shadow Series
Under Witch Moon is the first in the Moon Shadow Series — Adriel should have known that with a werewolf, it never stopped with just one body. She would have gone to the police after witnessing Dolores’ death, but she wasn’t certain the killer she saw was responsible for the other murders. Besides, the police didn’t believe in werewolves, and they weren’t going to believe she was a witch either so what could she tell them? One thing she did know: It was going to take every spell she knew and a few she hadn’t tried to solve the murders and stay alive.

Catch an Honest Thief (A Haven Mystery)--Alexia just wants to save the city of Haven, but that means going undercover and pretending to be a thief. Can she avoid being caught–by security–or worse, the real thieves??

Tracking Magic--Five case files from Max Killian Investigations: Max is hired to expel a ghost from a mansion, counteract an ancient curse, investigate a graveyard mystery and figure out which secrets are worth dying for.
Sage: Tales from a Magical Kingdom--Three tales from the kingdom of Sage, including: Toil, Trouble and Rot, which was first published by Coyote Wild, and two completely new tales, Dungeons and Decay and Call to Arms.

Dorothy A. Spruzen

2011-01-17T09:54:00.000-08:00

Dorothy A. Spruzen grew up near London, England, earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte, and teaches writing in Northern Virginia when she’s not seeking her own muse. In another life she was Manager of Publications for a defense contractor. Her short stories and poems have appeared in many publications, and she is currently seeking representation for her novel, The Blitz Business, which is set in WWII England. She is the author of the murder mystery novel, Not One of Us. She and her husband live in Northern Virginia with a Jack Russell terrier, who doesn’t know he’s old and doesn’t know he’s small.

Her short story Call Me Back Soonest shows a young woman whose mind is filled with aspirations and romance, even as she reels between ruthless reality and fantasy.

Books by Dorothy A. Spruzen

Not One of Us (The Flower Ladies Trilogy, Book 1)

Rose, a widow and mother of three adult children, is a founding member of the Salton Symphony and one of a group of seven volunteers who call themselves the “Symphony Slaves.” As the story opens, she is in the hospital recovering from a concussion after being found unconscious outside her friend Judy’s house. Rose cannot remember how she got there, although she remembers finding Judy bludgeoned to death. This is only the first of several murders that rock the normally dull Salton, a Northern Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C.

Stranger Than Fiction

2011-01-17T07:56:00.000-08:00

You can't make this stuff up. The Mystery of the Collar Bomber is a bizarre set of twists and turns that any editor would have rejected as an insult to the sensibilities of potential readers!
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/12/ff_collarbomb/all/1

Jeri Westerson

2011-01-17T07:50:00.000-08:00

L.A. native Jeri Westerson writes the critically acclaimed Medieval Noir series with hardboiled protagonist Crispin Guest, ex-knight turned detective, plying his trade on the mean streets of fourteenth century London. Her novels have been short-listed for several mystery awards, including the Macavity and the Shamus. She writes a blog of history and mystery called Getting Medieval and her detective writes his own blog. You can read excerpts of her novels at her author page.

Here is a short story featuring her Medieval detective:
Grave Prayers: A Crispin Guest Medieval Mystery Short

Books by Jeri Westerson

Veil of Lies: A Medieval Noir--Hired to spy on a rich merchant's wife, Crispin gets involved in murder, international intrigue, a beautiful femme fatale, and a mysterious religious relic

Serpent in the Thorns: A Medieval Noir (Crispin Guest Novels)--Falsely accused of attempting to kill the king, Crispin must race against time to bring down the real assassin before it is too late.

The Demon's Parchment: A Medieval Noir (Crispin Guest Novels)--Crispin must find stolen Hebrew texts that might have released a demon, a demon who stalks the streets of London, killing young boy.

Keith Massey

2011-01-17T07:48:00.000-08:00

Keith Massey is a Latin teacher and former Arabic linguist at the National Security Agency. He is the author of Intermediate Arabic for Dummies. He blogs essays and fiction at A Place of Brightness.

In this story, the hero has to solve a mystery by following hidden clues in a library.

Dr. Valquist in the Library

Books by Keith Massey

Next Stop: Spanish--A Language Learning Adventure Novel. Learn some basic Spanish as John Valquist travels with his uncle, former NSA agent Dr. Andrew Valquist.

Intermediate Arabic For Dummies--From the popular "For Dummies" series, Dr. Massey presents a user-friendly workbook for improving your Arabic past the basic level.

Sheila Lowe

2011-01-17T07:39:00.000-08:00

Like her character Claudia Rose in the award-winning Forensic Handwriting Mysteries series, Sheila Lowe is a real-life handwriting expert who testifies in handwriting-related court cases. With more than forty years of experience in the field of handwriting analysis, she’s a frequent guest in the media and was invited by Lifetime Movie Network to provide information and analysis of criminals on their website as a tie-in for Jeffery Deaver’s The Devil’s Teardrop movie. Sheila has earned a Master of Science degree in psychology and is the author of the internationally acclaimed The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Handwriting Analysis, Handwriting of the Famous & Infamous, and Sheila Lowe’s Handwriting Analyzer software.

In addition to her short story Loophole, you can read excerpts of her novels here.

Books by Sheila Lowe

Poison Pen: A Forensic Handwriting Mystery--Can handwriting be faked to make murder look like suicide? That's the question forensic handwriting expert Claudia Rose is hired to answer.

It would be easier on the police, and on Claudia herself, to write off the death of ruthless Hollywood publicist Lindsey Alexander as suicide, but old friendships die hard and Claudia can't say No. In a shocking twist, she finds herself entangled in a far darker scenario than she anticipated. Racing to identify a killer, she soon has a price on her head and unless she can read the handwriting on the wall, she will become the next victim.

Written In Blood: A Forensic Handwriting Mystery--Some describe Paige Sorensen as beautiful. Her stepchildren prefer to call her a golddigging bimbo. When the Sorensen twins and their wheelchair-bound brother accuse Paige of forging their father's signature on his will, she retains nationally acclaimed handwriting expert, Claudia Rose, to help prepare her defense. The Sorensen children are vicious adversaries, determined to wrest control of the Sorensen Academy, a private girls' school, away from Paige, but when there's a stunning disappearance, accusing eyes turn in an unexpected direction.

Dead Write: A Forensic Handwriting Mystery--Handwriting expert Claudia Rose heads to the Big Apple at the behest of Grusha Olinetsky, the notorious founder of an elite dating service whose members are mysteriously dying. Drawn into the feckless lives of the rich and single, Claudia finds herself in a twisted world of love and lies fueled by desperation. But is one among them desperate enough to kill? Claudia must find clues in the suspects' handwriting before more victims are scribbled into the killer's black book.

Last Writes: A Forensic Handwriting Mystery--Erin Powers and her husband have been living as members of The Temple of Brighter Light in an isolated religious compound call the Ark. Now Erin's husband and child have disappeared, leaving behind a cryptic note. Desperate, Erin seeks help from her estranged half-sister Kelly Brennan and Kelly's close friend, Claudia Rose. Using her skills as a forensic handwriting expert, Claudia gains entry to the Ark, where she has only days to uncover the truth about Kelly's missing niece before a child's life is written off for good.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Handwriting Analysis, 2nd Edition

Handwriting of the Famous and Infamous

David Justice

2011-01-17T07:30:00.000-08:00

David Justice has published short stories in Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. He worked at Merriam-Webster as Editor of Etymology and as Editor of Pronunciation. He was editor-in-chief at Franklin Electronic Publishers. He is currently employed as a language analyst. In addition to a blog featuring the Murphy Brothers, Dr. Justice also has a blog of his philosophical and mathematical essays.

Here he offers a story featuring his detectives the Murphy Brothers.

Don't Mention It

Books by David Justice

I Don't Do Divorce Cases--A collective of short stories, some originally published in Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock, featuring the Murphy Brothers.

Murphy on the Mount--The first complete novel of the Murphy Brothers. They face their toughest case, no clues and now even no client!

Welcome to Discretion Assured

2011-01-12T12:12:00.000-08:00

This is a site for anyone who loves to read a good detective or mystery story. "Discretion Assured" was the motto of classic gumshoes from the Golden Age of these genres. Please check back often, since we're always adding new stories. Enjoy!

This is primarily a site for readers who love this genre, but we also offer writers a chance to have their stories listed here. Please click on "For Authors..."