Jon Talton staked out the Southwest in his award-winning David Mapstone mysteries. The Washington Post called Concrete Desert, "more intelligent and rewarding than most contemporary mysteries." And author John Lescroart labeled Arizona Dreams, "a pure delight," saying that Mapstone is "one of the most compelling characters in the mystery scene in several years."Now Jon Talton turns to a gritty hospital in a Midwestern city seething with racial tension for The ...

"Talton's summer mystery, a first novel, shows how fertile the desert can be as a mystery setting... A stunning debut." — Booklist STARRED reviewHaving recently lost his job as a history professor, David Mapstone returns to his boyhood home of Phoenix, Arizona, to find the city dramatically changed. It's now a haven for wealthy retirees and a seasonal retreat for West Coast "sophisticates," but pockets of his earlier life—some welcome, some not—remain. Map...

The past is never past on the mean streets of Phoenix, especially when the mercury hits a hundred and it's only April. Half a century after the unsolved murder of an FBI agent, the missing badge is found on the body of a dead transient. The case seems a perfect fit for David Mapstone, history professor turned Maricopa County deputy sheriff. That is, if he can get past a forced partnership with rival cold-case expert Sgt. Kate Vare and the FBI's strange stonewalling about the details of the...

Thanks to spinal tumor surgery, Cincinnati Homicide Detective Will Borders now walks with a cane and lives alone with constant discomfort. He's lucky to be alive and lucky to have a job as public information officer for the department. When a star cop is brutally murdered, he's assigned to find her killer. The crime bears a chilling similarity to killings on the peaceful college campus nearby, where his friend, pain nurse Cheryl Beth Wilson, is now teaching nursing. Moreover, the two young...

"In the quiet of my forgotten office in the old country courthouse, behind the plastic doorplate that reads 'Deputy David Mapstone, Sheriff's Office Historian', I fiddled with the tribal fashion of cops. The tan uniform blouse with epaulets and pocket flaps, the opening above the pocket made for a cheap Cross pen, and the gold-plated 'MCSO' letters running parallel on each side of the collars. An off-white felt Stetson sat on my desk. We might be one of the largest urban counties in th...

"Talton shines in weaving together the mystery elements of the plots with historical events from the Prohibition period. Fast-paced, gritty, and exciting, this one will have fans of both Depression-era and southwestern-set crime fiction begging for more!"— Booklist, Starred ReviewA fresh take on classic noir, City of Dark Corners reveals the seedy underbelly of the budding city of Phoenix in the 1930s and the lengt...

He's a man we know only as "the columnist." He writes for a newspaper in Seattle, isn't afraid to stir up trouble, and keeps his life—including his multiple lovers and his past—in safe compartments. But it's all about to be violently upended when he goes out on what seems like the most mundane of assignments, looking into a staid company that "never makes news."The moment one of his sources takes a dive off a downtown skyscraper, the columnist is plunged into a harrowing maze of mu...

A handsome young New York professor comes to Phoenix to research his new book. But when he's brutally murdered, police connect him to one of the world's most deadly drug cartels. This shouldn't be a case for historian-turned-deputy David Mapstone—except the victim has been dating David's sister-in-law Robin and now she's a target, too. David's wife Lindsey is in Washington with an elite anti-cyber terror unit and she makes one demand of him: protect Robin.This won't be an easy job ...

The past never rests easy in Arizona.Forty years ago, a Phoenix reporter was killed by a car bomb in one of America's most notorious crimes. Three men went to prison—but was there more to the story of Charles Page's assassination? More than three low-level players? Did a kingpin order the hit and get away with it? And what was the real motive? Despite the work of teams of journalists and law and legal professionals, no one yet knows why.It's a case custom-m...

When a former student turns up in David Mapstone's office, she seems to have the perfect case for this history-professor-turned-deputy: a letter left by her deceased father, confessing to a forty-year-old murder and providing directions to the body. But things are never what they seem in Phoenix, a fast-buck city of newcomers seeking fresh starts from sometimes dark pasts.Just ask David's wife, Deputy Lindsey Faith Mapstone. One morning the start of the Willo District home tour is ...

The private-detective business starts out badly for former Phoenix Deputy David Mapstone and his old friend Sheriff Mike Peralta. They are investigating a suspicious death involving a young Arizona woman who fell from a condo tower in San Diego. The police call Grace Hunter's death a suicide, but the client doesn't buy it. He's her brother. Or is he? Shortly after hiring the team, he is gunned down, and police find multiple driver's licenses. His real identity is a mystery.In San D...

A cache of diamonds is stolen in Phoenix. The prime suspect is former Maricopa County Sheriff Mike Peralta, now a private investigator. Disappearing into Arizona's mountainous High Country, Peralta leaves his business partner and longtime friend David Mapstone with a stark choice. He can cooperate with the FBI, or strike out on his own to find Peralta and what really happened.Mapstone knows he can count on his wife Lindsey, one of the top "good hackers" in law enforcement. But what...