All Novels
The Complete Backlist & Series catalog by Alan Russell
The Dead Detective
It starts with a sneaker washed ashore. The severed foot inside changed everything…
San Diego Homicide Detective Wyatt Lake has seen strange cases—but nothing like this. When a second foot appears nearby, forensic experts trace the shoes’ journey back to a sunken shipping container. Inside: twelve bodies, shackled together at the bottom of the sea. Then the Feds seize control of the investigation. Frustrated at being pushed aside, Wyatt transfers to the Cold Case Unit, hoping to work the “chain-gang” homicides off the books. It is said that when man plans, God laughs. When Wyatt is diagnosed with a fatal illness, he opts to put his all into his caseload, particularly his investigation into Chloe Landers—the sole survivor of a brutal attack twenty-five years ago that left her best friend dead and her legs amputated.
Gideon's Rescue
They saved lives together. Now they must save each other.
The dramatic, heart-stopping follow-up to the bestseller The Last Good Dog. When a massive earthquake strikes Southern California, Detective Michael Gideon and his golden retriever partner, Sirius, are deployed to coordinate search-and-rescue efforts in the collapsed ruins. But in the midst of the chaos, a heavily armed crew uses the natural disaster as cover to execute a daring heist and abduct a high-profile hostage. Separated from their unit and trapped in a crumbling underground structure, Gideon and Sirius must track the abductors through the dark, unstable ruins. It’s a race against time and aftershocks, and the stakes have never been higher.
The Last Good Dog
A cop. A dog. A search for a killer.
From the bestselling author of Gideon’s Rescue comes a gripping, suspenseful mystery of loyalty and survival. Detective Michael Gideon and his canine partner, Sirius, a golden retriever trained for police work, are the department’s K9 star team. When a body is discovered in the remote canyon trails of Los Angeles, they are called to the scene. What looks like a simple hiking accident quickly morphs into a complex web of deceit, betrayal, and cold-blooded murder.
Inhuman Trafficking
A Deke Deketomis Legal Thriller
For Nick “Deke” Deketomis, going where angels fear to tread in waging legal battles has long been a way of life. As managing partner for one of the nation’s largest plaintiffs’ law firms, Deke has gone toe to toe with some of the largest corporations in the world. His firm specializes in the tough, even quixotic, cases that few lawyers would dare to take on. Like human trafficking. Deke’s target this time is Welcome Mat Hospitality, a firm known for its truck stops and lodging throughout the United States. What Welcome Mat doesn’t advertise is the human trafficking—for sex work and slave labor—going on at many of its properties. For the sake of better profits, Welcome Mat’s ownership has turned a blind eye to this lucrative enterprise.
L.A. Woman
Some secrets are better left in the dark.
A fast-paced, high-stakes thriller set on the sun-drenched and shadow-filled streets of Los Angeles. L.A. is a city of dreams, but for one woman, it’s about to become a waking nightmare. After witnessing a crime that ties back to the city’s highest political circles, she is forced to go on the run. With nobody to trust and the police department compromised, she must rely on her wits and survival instincts to stay one step ahead of a highly trained hitman.
The Homecoming
Seven years ago, she vanished. Now, she's back with an unbelievable story.
Seven years ago, young Stella Pierce vanished from the face of the earth. Now her grieving, broken family—along with Orson Cheever the detective who never stopped working her case—is stunned by her mysterious return. The now-teenage girl claims to have spent her missing years in the company of Travelers—extraterrestrial nomads—voyaging through space. Despite her family’s effort to keep Stella’s incredible tale secret, the story becomes a national sensation. Most people want to discount her tale, believing it to be the result of trauma; only Detective Cheever seems to want the same thing Stella does: the truth.
Lost Dog
A Gideon and Sirius Novel Book 3
Detective Michael Gideon is used to being handed L.A.’s oddest cases, but his newest one assigned itself. When Gideon’s K-9 partner, Sirius, rescues a lost dog from a pack of coyotes, the duo tries to return her home—only to discover her owner is missing. Heather Moreland has clearly disappeared under suspicious circumstances, and the more Gideon digs into her past, the more he’s convinced of her abduction. As Gideon strives to help the missing woman, he is also troubled by the suspicious death of Detective Langston Walker, the leader of a support group for families of murder victims. The last time they’d met, Walker told Gideon about a cold case he had reopened, making Gideon wonder if the detective’s demise is the accident everyone believes.
A Cold War
Survival in the Alaskan wilderness is a battle for life and freedom.
Nina Granville believes her business trip to Alaska will give her a short respite from the merry-go-round that came with her engagement to Congressman Terrence Donnelly. But instead of allowing her the peace she craves, Nina’s getaway from the public eye means that no one witnesses her abduction into a very cold hell. Taken by a mountain man who calls himself Baer and then transported to a remote cabin surrounded by nothing but frozen wilderness, Nina descends into a nightmare of terror, privation, and bitter cold. Nina’s privileged life did not prepare her for imprisonment at the hands of this survivalist trapper. If she is to live—and to escape—Nina realizes she must do it on her own.
Guardians of the Night
A Gideon and Sirius Novel Book 2
As the sole members of LAPD’s Special Cases Unit, Detective Michael Gideon and his German shepherd partner Sirius work investigations considered bizarre even by Los Angeles’s standards. Yet their latest case is more than strange—it might be out of this world. Ronald “Wrong” Pauley is a homeless man long fallen from grace. When Pauley’s late-night drinking is interrupted by a detonation of light, he sees what he describes as a “being of light” in the alley below. Pauley tries to help, but ends up as a witness to what he believes is the murder of a fallen angel.
The Hotel Detective
Checking in is easy. Checking out alive is another story.
A witty, suspenseful look behind the velvet ropes and closed doors of the luxury hotel business. Meet Amon Vance, the hotel detective for the prestigious Queen City Hotel. Amon’s job description is simple: handle the discrete indiscretions of the wealthy, keep the peace, and make sure scandals stay out of the headlines. But when a prominent guest is found dead in the penthouse suite, Amon finds himself in the middle of a bizarre murder investigation.
St. Nick
It's not looking like a very merry Christmas for San Diego cop Nick Pappas.
It’s not looking like a very merry Christmas for San Diego cop Nick Pappas. Suspended from his job, alienated from his family, and persecuted by the press, he’s sorely tempted to turn his gun on himself. Except for his first name, he couldn’t possibly have less in common with jolly old St. Nicholas. But when a local mall decides it needs a secret Santa to help collar some vicious muggers preying on its holiday shoppers, Nick’s persuaded to red-suit up so as to take the naughty punks down and avert a ho-ho homicide. For a chance to bust bad guys, Nick’s willing to deal with crying kids, pushy parents, and a chronically cheerful “elf” sidekick. But the biggest challenge for this cop-turned-Claus is one that would confound even the real Kris Kringle: making a pair of next-to-impossible Christmas wishes come true for two children in need…before it’s too late.
Burning Man
A Gideon and Sirius Novel Book 1
LAPD cop Michael Gideon and his police dog partner Sirius became reluctant celebrities after capturing a notorious serial killer in the midst of an inferno. For their heroism, they were chosen to head up the newly formed Special Cases Unit. Now the duo tackles out-of-the-ordinary cases, anything deemed unusual or bizarre even by Hollyweird standards. When a teenager is found crucified in a city park, Gideon and Sirius are handed the bizarre case. Confronting the gruesome tableau and having to work the case worsens Detective Gideon’s PTSD, a condition he has tried to hide from others. Gideon’s burns may have healed, but the fire haunts him still…in more ways than one.
Political Suicide
In the capital, the ultimate power grab is a matter of life and death.
Will Travis is an undercover corporate investigator whose job involves low-key assignments like checking out the service at Washington, DC, hotel bars and reporting back to management. But his evening takes an unexpected turn when he interrupts an attempted murder. Soon, Will is on the run with Claire Harrington, the daughter of a former congressman whose suicide, she claims, was murder—and she wants Will to help her prove it. Will is hesitant to believe Claire, but he and her father both attended West Point, and the cadets’ honor code binds them. He’s already in too deep—hit men are after both of them, and he and Claire will have to trust one another if they’re going to survive. As the danger sends them deep into the heart of our nation’s capital, time is running out to stop a high-profile presidential candidate who may also be a killer—and who only needs to avoid justice until election night to make the ultimate power grab.
Exposure
When capturing the dark side of celebrity becomes a death sentence.
Capturing the seedy and sordid side of life isn’t anything new for photojournalist-turned-paparazzo Graham Wells. But when a shoot turns deadly—secretly causing the car crash that takes the lives of two beloved public figures—he knows the ensuing media spotlight could easily destroy him. Fortunately, no one else knows his shameful secret except for a mysterious CIA operative, and that clandestine agent swears he’ll keep quiet…for a price. Blackmailed into documenting the orchestrated downfalls of some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, Graham finds his role in the operation disturbingly murky. But the picture soon begins to clear and comes into horrifying focus after he prevents the suicide of celebrated actress Lanie Byrne, revealing a sprawling web of lies that reaches from the glittering lights of Hollywood to the dark political intrigue of Europe and Washington, DC.
Shame
Escaping a serial killer's legacy is impossible when the shadows come to life.
Although it’s been many years since the death of his father—an infamous serial killer known as Shame—Caleb Parker still struggles to free himself from his father’s dark shadow. Caleb wishes only for a normal life without being branded a “killer’s son,” but his dreams are shattered when a new string of murders surfaces that are all too reminiscent of Shame’s terrible killings. When the police label him the prime suspect, Caleb forges an unlikely partnership with true-crime author Elizabeth Line, a writer whose career began when she survived an encounter with Shame and who then went on to document his life—and death. As the body count begins to pile up, Elizabeth and Caleb come to the conclusion that one of them has been targeted by the killer, and a game of cat and mouse begins as they try to uncover the murderer’s identity before becoming his next victims.
Multiple Wounds
A psychological thriller of split personalities and classical mythology.
Holly Troy’s mind is a complex maze of myth and reality, multiple personalities vying for time in the spotlight. As an artist, she is creative and compelling. As a witness, she is painfully unreliable, unsure of even which person she was the night of the murder. Even Holly can’t be sure of her own innocence. Homicide detective Orson Cheever never thought he would find himself playing psychologist to a Greek goddess in a modern-day murder investigation, but many of Holly’s personalities come straight from classical mythology, from Cronos and Pandora to the Fates. As Cheever attempts to unravel truth from myth, he learns that there is even more to Holly than meets the eye. One personality in particular—that of a five-year-old girl—hits a little too close to home, and Cheever is forced to finally pull back the dark curtains of his own past in order to uncover the truth in this psychological thriller.
The Fat Innkeeper
A hilarious oceanside mystery
The fog isn’t the only thing wreaking havoc at La Jolla’s landmark Hotel California. A prankster has been hiring employees for nonexistent jobs, a decomposing whale interrupts a grunion run, and a group of swingers has arrived at the property for a love-in. Not for the first time, hotel detective Am Caulfield is overheard saying, “Hotels are like a circus without the tent.” In addition to those headaches, Am has more than a few mysteries on his hands: Which one of the hotel guests murdered the famed paranormal debunker in room 374? What changes does the hotel’s new owner—aka the Fat Innkeeper—have in store? And can Am juggle a new romantic interest and the increasing animosity of the local police while still nabbing a killer?
The Forest Prime Evil
A Stuart Winter Novel Book 2
When P.I. Stuart Winter investigates the death of an environmental activist in a redwood forest, he encounters a radical ecocommune, a fundamentalist preacher, and a trio of marijuana moguls. A classic case of environmental conflict and mystery in the deep redwoods.
No Sign of Murder
A Private Investigator Stuart Winter Novel
San Francisco P.I. Stuart Winter looks into the death of a young, deaf heiress who volunteered as a sign language instructor—for a gorilla who may have witnessed her murder. The debut novel introducing private investigator Stuart Winter.