James Grippando is the winner of the Harper Lee Prize and the New York Times bestselling author of 30 novels of suspense. His novels are enjoyed worldwide in 28 languages. James is a practicing attorney specializing in entertainment and intellectual property law, representing clients who have won more than 30 Tony Awards. He is also an adjunct professor of Law & Literature at the University of Miami School of Law.

He lives in south Florida with his wife, three children, two cats and a golden retriever named Atlas who has no idea he’s a dog.

Goodbye Girl, January 9, 2024

Preferring to see pirates profit from her music than let her ex-husband and ex-manager pocket one more dime, pop star Imani tells her millions of fans to download her music illegally. Her hardball tactic leads to scorched-earth litigation, and now she needs the help Miami criminal defense lawyer Jack Swyteck.

The case takes a deadly turn when Imani and her ex down a path of mutual assured destruction, each implicating the other in the unsolved murder of Imani’s extra-marital lover twelve years ago. Tyler McCormick died of asphyxiation, and his body was found in Biscayne Bay, chained to a piling with the words “goodbye girl” impressed on his chest. Despite their fierce denials, they are both indicted for murder. The sensational trial exposes their failed marriage, their cut-throat business partnership, and Imani’s astonishing success.

Yet as Jack discovers, uncovering the truth about the killing and the cryptic “goodbye girl” won’t just exonerate or convict his client, her ex, and their music empire. It may shape the future of the entire recording industry.

Jack Swytek’s favorite dish is his abuela’s specialty, ropa vieja, a shredded-beef dish with a name that translates to “old clothes.” Ideally, he’d wash it down with Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, 20 years old.

Lisa Malice has a PhD in Psychology, two grown children, two granddogs, and grew up reading mysteries she pulled off my mother’s vast shelves of books—Agatha Christie, P.D. James, and others. Sunday was mystery night, whether it was watching Columbo or MacMillan and Wife on The NBC Sunday Mystery Movie or listening to The CBS Radio Mystery Theater. Lest She Forget is her first novel.

Lest She Forget, December 12, 2023

After surviving a car crash, Kay Smith wakes from a coma with amnesia, a battered face, and no one to vouch for her identity. Her psychiatrist is convinced that her memory loss is connected to the horrific flashbacks and nightmares haunting her. As she digs for clues to her past, Kay uncovers a shady character following her every inquiry. Who is he? And what does he want from her?
As Kay’s probes deepen, she realizes that everyone around her has deadly secrets to hide—even her. Emerging memories, guilty suspicions, and headline-screaming murders push Kay to come out of the shadows and choose: will she perpetuate a horrendous lie or risk her life to uncover the truth?

A new friend brings Kay a breakfast she seems to recognize: a toasted baguette with ham, Gruyere cheese, Mornay sauce, and a fried egg—otherwise known as a Croque Madame. With, of course, coffee!

Duane Swierczynski is the author of several crime thrillers, which have won the Shamus and Anthony Awards. Many are currently in development for film and TV. He writes the IDW series Judge Dredd, the Valiant Comics series Bloodshot, the forthcoming Dark Horse series X, and has written about the Punisher, Birds of Prey, Godzilla, Cable, the Immortal Iron Fist, Werewolf By Night, Black Widow and Deadpool. Duane has also collaborated with CSI creator Anthony E. Zuiker on a series of bestselling “digi-novels”.

In a previous life, Duane was the editor-in-chief of the Philadelphia City Paper, and has worked as an editor and writer at Men’s Health, Details and Philadelphia magazines. In a previous, previous life, Duane, then known as “Cliff Dohower,” died of tuberculosis in Wisconsin in 1957.

California Bear, January 9, 2024

Jack Queen has been exonerated and freed from prison thanks to retired LAPD officer Cato Hightower, but guiltily admits: “I actually did it.” To which Hightower responds: “Yeah, no kidding.” You see, the ex-cop has a special job in mind for the ex-con.

Fifteen-year-old Matilda Finnerty has been handed a potential death sentence in the form of a leukemia diagnosis. But that’s not going to stop her from tackling the most important mystery of her life: Is her father guilty of murder?

Jeanie Hightower mends family trees for a living, but the genealogist is unable to repair her own marriage. And her soon-to-be ex may have entangled her in a scheme that has drawn the bloody wrath of the Bear.

The Bear is a prolific serial killer who disappeared forty years ago, who is only now emerging from hibernation when the conditions are just right. And this time, the California Bear is not content to hunt in the shadows.

Duane’s girl detective Matilda likes to eat healthy—but when she doesn’t, she loves a good donut (preferably a Bear Claw) washed down with an ice-cold root beer.

Stephen Hunter has written over twenty novels. The retired chief film critic for The Washington Post, where he won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism, has also published two collections of film criticism and a nonfiction work, American Gunfight. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland with his wife Jean.

Front Sight, January 23, 2024

This collection of three interconnected novellas follows each generation of the iconic Swagger family—grandfather Charles, father Earl, and fan favorite hero Bob Lee.

In The Night Train, Charles Swagger is on the hunt for notorious bank robber Baby Face Nelson when he traces a tip to the Chicago stock yards. While there, he discovers a narcotics ring with plans to spread its new drug to the residents of the disenfranchised 7th District of Chicago. Worse, this is no ordinary drug—it makes some users happy, drives others insane, and kills many of the rest.

Earl Swagger investigates a violent bank robbery in Johnny Tuesday in small-town Maryland. At every turn, however, he’s met with silence and hostility from the townsfolk, which makes sense when he uncovers municipal corruption, working-class exploitation, gang politics, jaded aristocrats, scheming gamblers, a hitman, a femme fatale. And a whole bunch of men with guns.

Finally, in Five Dolls for the Gut Hook, a thirty-two-year-old Bob Lee Swagger is back from Vietnam nearly broken over good men lost for nothing. He’s turned hard down that whiskey road to hell. But one afternoon he’s wakened from his nightmares by two men who tell him a butcher has begun to prey on the city’s young women—and that “you are the son and grandson of two of the greatest detectives this state has ever produced.” On that premise alone, Bob takes up the hunt for a killer who not only kills but desecrates. But equally, we understand, Bob Lee Swagger is hunting his own salvation.

Bob Lee Swagger is a recovering alcoholic, but Stephen has been known to kick back a beer now and then.