Murder Room
80 total works
A bunch of kids from a Catholic School on a school trip to the Museum of National History seems like a safe day out. But when the nuns counted heads outside the building, young Joyce McCauley was missing. The Feds, believing it to be a snatch, are waiting for the ransom note to turn up.
But Lieutenant Luis Mendoza of the LAPD has other suspicions. He has been working with violence and death longer than he cares to remember and has seen it all. Mendoza is certain some nut has kidnapped Joyce, and sets about tracing the girl in his suave, tough and matchless fashion.
'A Luis Mendoza mystery means superlative suspense' Los Angeles Times
Lieutenant Luis Mendoza is tasked with solving a double murder, shrouded in strange rites. Acting on one of his famous hunches, he is drawn into the world behind the glitter of Hollywood and into the Temple of Mystic Truth.
There he finds cultists Martin and Cara Kingman, who turn out to be less than spiritual . . .
'A Luis Mendoza story means superlative suspense' Los Angeles Times
In Lieutenant Luis Mendoza's first case, he is faced with a three-way mystery involving the senseless killing of Elena Ramirez, a blackmailing involving a below-the-radar adoption, and a young man's guilt.
And when Mendoza connects Elena's death with that of another woman, and investigates two further hunches, he draws closer to a solution . . .
'Quite Outstanding' Guardian
Death is everywhere. A child in a playground. A playboy in a cheap hotel. A John Doe in a freight yard. A nanny and her two charges in a church pew.
After twenty-six years in homicide, Lieutenant Luis Mendoza knows death is all in a day's work. But in the heat of a Los Angeles summer, even the predictable becomes bizarre. And for a hard-boiled cop with a decidedly soft centre, nothing is more implausible than human nature - especially when it comes to murder . . .
'A Luis Mendoza story means superlative suspense' Los Angeles Times
Ireland, 1651. A country ravaged by Oliver Cromwell's Act of Settlement. Under it, Fergal O'Breslin, a young clan chief, and his fellow Irish citizens are forced to leave their ancestral lands and travel to the cramped, rocky province of Connacht. There, honest men become robbers, proud men must beg, and despair and privation become a way of life.
Set against a panoramic backdrop of religious and political upheaval, Fergal and his clansmen struggle to wrest an existence out of a barren and inhospitable land under the yoke of English oppression.
A nice young man is helping little old ladies with their groceries . . . then stealing their Social Security; an enormous 'ape man' with a face like King Kong is robbing liquor stores; 'Jack the Stripper' is leaving gas-station registers empty . . . and the attendants naked; a pretty Hispanic woman is killed and ethnic tensions are ready to explode; a little girl is mutilated; a cop is fatally shot.
Between the weather and the crime wave, Lieutenant Luis Mendoza - the family-man cop - finds shelter at home, knowing that even violence on the streets of Los Angeles eases up . . . eventually.
'A Luis Mendoza mystery means superlative suspense' Los Angeles Timesc
'A Luis Mendoza story means superlative suspense' Los Angeles Times
Lieutenant Luis Mendoza works with an outstanding team at the Los Angeles Police Department. They need to be. On their hands is a case of a vanished treasure of coins; drug dealers and a clutch of law-breaking brothers.
As well as the cases, though, there's an inside view of a police department and the varied lives of the characters who work within it.
'A Luis Mendoza story means superlative suspense' Los Angeles Times
An earthquake shakes Southern California and the Los Angeles Police Department. With no air-conditioning and a temperature around 98 degrees the heat is turned up when there's a triple shooting of a highly respected Doctor, his wife and his nurse.
Can Lieutenant Luis Mendoza and his team solve the case while chaos reigns around them?
Lieutenant Luis Mendoza likes nothing better than to wrap up his homicide cases neatly. The latest Jane Doe is identified as Valerie Ellis, a spoiled rich kid who was left penniless when her parents died four years ago. But, as Mendoza is about to find out, there are many layers to this complex case...
'One of his best' Observer
'Mendoza is back again and on form' Spectator
Two men involved in a heist are wanted for double homicide; the body of a young punk is found in an alley; the corpse of a girl lies in the dry riverbed. Everything is, in fact, more or less routine for Lieutenant Luis Mendoza and his colleagues in the Los Angeles Police Department. Then they get the news: the murdered girl was a police officer of fine standing - one of their very own.
'Convincing, compelling reading' Sun
A perfect collection of short stories for Dell Shannon fans and mystery lovers everywhere, featuring eight cases of her popular Lieutenant Luis Mendoza, alongside six intriguing non-series tales.
Mysteries include the case of an exasperated husband who may have murdered his nagging wife - but would he have killed his beloved pet as well? A young girl dies in an 'accident' when a parked truck slips its brakes and slams into the house where she's staying. And a nursing home resident suspects that old age is not the only thing eliminating his neighbours.
'My favourite American crime-writer' New York Herald Tribune
The Death-bringers means tragedy for LAPD Homicide. One of Lieutenant Luis Mendoza's friends is killed while going into a bank. Now Mendoza and his team of detectives are dealing with the loss of a friend and a colleague - and trying to find his murderer among the criminals of Los Angeles...
'Builds up to a superbly exciting mystery - with not one, but three climaxes' Manchester Evening News
It's January in Los Angeles, and the city is experiencing a heatwave. Lieutenant Luis Mendoza's homicide squad is depleted by the murder of one its members, and the crime-rate is rising as high as the temperature . . .
'Intelligent, humane, well written and continuously absorbing' Sunday Times
An early June hot spell takes its toll as it fuels a wave of bloody and bizarre crimes for Luis Mendoza of the LAPD. Grisliest by far is the psycho they call the werewolf, who gets his kicks by killing hookers before vanishing into the dark. A gorgeous teenage redhead holds up liquor stores with her boyfriend. And to make the caseload really interesting, 'Jack the Stripper' hits the city's gas stations - stealing cash and his victim's clothes . . .
'A Luis Mendoza mystery means superlative suspense' Los Angeles Times
'A Luis Mendoza story means superlative suspense' Los Angeles Times
Things begin to heat up in the Los Angeles Police Department when Lieutenant Luis Mendoza's stolid and good-natured colleague Sergeant Higgins is kidnapped by three dangerous escaped prisoners.
A manhunt is launched but no one expects Higgins to be seen alive again. Can Mendoza's team ever recover, or is the officer's return just around the corner?
The Los Angeles Homicide Department is a revolving door of crime where Lieutenant Luis Mendoza has hardly time to grab a sandwich between the serial muggings of seven senior citizens, the disappearance of a wheelchair-bound man, and the killing of one of two runaway girls.
All this and Mendoza also has to deal with his ever-growing family. Already the father of twins, his wife Alison is pregnant again and juggling work and home proves a tall order.
The body of a woman from respectable, conservative Glendale is found stashed under a ramshackle house in the middle of the inner city. Detective Luis Mendoza marks the rising heat by the crime and violence raging through the sun-baked streets of Los Angeles - and it's going to be a hot one . . .
A thug is shot to death. A mysterious string of robberies continues unabated . . . all without a clue. But the family-man cop knows that where there's heat there's fire - and a cold trail to nowhere promises to turn into a red-hot path leading straight to the damned.
'A Luis Mendoza mystery means superlative suspense' Los Angeles Times
'A Luis Mendoza story means superlative suspense' Los Angeles Times
Lieutenant Mendoza seems to be beset on all sides: at home, his wife Alison is convinced she is having twins; at the office his worry is a man called Francis Ingram, prime suspect for a murder Mendoza does not think he has committed.
Yet the fact remains that someone has murdered Mendoza's wife, Arabella, and the evidence points straight at him. But as the case progresses it becomes clear that everyone has a grudge against her and a consuming interest in her will . . .
When American journalist Jon Harkness is reassigned to his paper's London office, he quickly becomes embroiled in a bizarre tale involving an ancient family curse. Whilst out for a drive, his car is surrounded by an eerie fog and he finds himself on the wild Cornish coast by a medieval-looking pub named The Drowned Man.
It is here that Harkness overhears the locals talking about an ancient curse that haunts the prominent Manson family, which piques his interest. Upon visiting the family's mansion, Harkness is plunged headlong into the chilling tale of a spell that has worked its power over the Manson clan for centuries.
'My favourite American crime-writer' New York Herald Tribune