Showing results by author "Jon Land" in All Categories

Jessica Fletcher takes up the cause of her good friend Barbara Babs Wirth after Babs's husband Hal suffers a fatal heart attack that Jessica has reason to believe was actually murder. Her suspicions are aroused by a sinister dating site Hal used while he and Babs were having marital issues - a site that might be complicit in somehow swindling him out of millions. Jessica's investigation reveals that Hal was far from the only victim, and when his former business partner is also killed, a deadly pattern emerges.

Dr. Karen Raymond has made the medical breakthrough of the century, a vaccine that could halt the spread of our most devastating modern plague, AIDS. But when her laboratory is destroyed and her colleagues murdered, she realized she's in danger: a conspiracy of proportions she never dreamed possible is out to crush her work. In another part of the country the population of an entire town has disappeared into thin air, leaving behind only half-finished meals, empty offices and schools.

There are 96 names on the list. They are those of businessmen, judges, and senators - the nation’s wealthiest and most powerful. And they are all going to die. A man named Takahashi has hired the world’s finest assassins to eliminate these men in secrecy and style, crossing names off the list without raising any suspicion. And they are killing ahead of schedule. But someone has noticed the pattern of these seemingly unrelated deaths, and she knows enough to call Blaine McCracken.

Jessica Fletcher’s favorite gin-rummy partner, Mimi Van Dorn, checks into the brand-new Clifton Care Partners, a private hospital that’s just opened up shop in town, for a simple procedure - one that leads tragically, and inexplicably, to her death. Seeking justice in her inimitable fashion, Jessica decides to pursue her own investigation of the hospital and its shadowy business dealings. On the trail of what initially appears to be medical malpractice, Jessica digs deeper and learns her friend was actually a victim of something far more sinister.

Who killed 2,000 innocent people, and how? More importantly, can they be stopped from striking again?Infectious disease expert Dr. Susan Lyle teams up with Blaine McCracken, ex-CIA operative, in the search for answers. Hideously deformed cadavers and a missing teenage genius are their only leads. The chase takes them all the way down the eastern seaboard and across the country, and they soon realize that at the heart of the puzzle lies a whole new generation of biological weapons.

Jessica Fletcher has had plenty to worry about over her storied career, both as a best-selling novelist and as a part-time sleuth. But she's never had any reason to doubt her longtime publisher and trusted friend, Lane Barfield. When mounting evidence of financial malfeasance leads to an FBI investigation of Lane, Jessica can't believe what she's reading. So when it appears that Barfield has committed suicide, Jessica takes on the task of clearing his name. Sure enough, Jessica turns up several inconsistencies in the case against Barfield, as well as signs he might have been murdered.

Young Jessica Fletcher’s life couldn’t be more ordinary. She teaches at the local high school while she and her loving husband, Frank, are raising their nephew Grady together. But when the beloved principal dies under mysterious circumstances, Jessica knows something is off and, for the very first time, investigates a death. Present-day Jessica returns to high school for a colleague’s retirement party and has fun seeing familiar faces. That is, until the colleague winds up dead - and his death has mysterious links to Jessica’s very first murder case.

A space shuttle is destroyed during flight, and the CIA recalls disgraced agent Blaine McCracken to uncover the people responsible. A space shuttle disappears during a routine repair mission, 180 miles above Earth’s surface. An intelligence operative with a dark secret is murdered, his car set ablaze, while he is in the middle of fulfilling a depraved fantasy. And a reporter receives a message from a dying man that suggests the organization responsible may be one of the world’s most prestigious corporations. The government knows just one man who can untangle this mystery: a throwaway on the deactivated list. Exiled to a desk job in Paris for stepping on the wrong toes, Blaine McCracken is a killer—a ruthless pursuer of truth who will let no one, friend or enemy, stand in his way when civilian lives are in danger. McCracken gets results, and his country needs him now more than ever.

Ben Kamal hasn't investigated a case since his last assignment with Danielle. But missing children in his native West Bank rekindle his interest in his career, reminding him of his own lost children. Danielle Barnea had put her career on hold as well, until a personal tragedy left her with nothing else to turn to. Her first case is the apparently random murder of a Jerusalem shopkeeper who was also one of Israel's earliest war heroes.

American Ben Kamal is a Detroit police detective whose police training makes him valuable to the new Palestinian police force on the West Bank. He's glad to help - but hooking up with the Israelis to find a serial killer was not part of the deal. Danielle Barnea is the best that Shin Bet, Israel's FBI, has to offer, but she, too, resists the assignment. Now Ben and Danielle are forced to leave personal differences behind as they realize that something much more complex than murder is behind the killings.

That explosive falls into the hands of Jack "Terror" Tyrell. Now, he's more determined than ever to realize his deadly vision: to lead a radical underground group that spreads its message via bombs and blood. Enter Blaine McCracken.

Four old women return from a Bahamas vacation with four more suitcases than they had when they left. They leave them behind at baggage claim, and a stranger picks them up - disappearing with the extra suitcases and the hundreds of pounds of cocaine they hold. The grandmothers are smugglers, supplementing their social security with criminal income, but one of them is tired of the deception. She goes to the DEA to inform on her employer, a vicious drug lord named Trelana, and when he learns she has snitched her age does not buy mercy.

A ringing phone awakes Dan Lennigin, college student, in the middle of the night, and the caller baffles him with a stream of panicked gibberish. It is a code, meant for someone else’s ears, and it draws Dan inexorably into a tangled international conspiracy. Minutes after the call, an operative for antiterrorist agency Lucifer is killed, and his superiors come for Dan. He is the only one who heard the warning, and now that he knows what is happening, he can’t say no. Ever since his vacationing father was murdered by hijackers, Dan has dreamed about taking revenge on the world’s terrorists. But this threat is no fantasy.

In the last years of the Cold War, policy and trust for the Russians have led to disarmament treaties and hope for a new beginning. But peace is not yet within grasp. An entire American town has been wiped off the map: not by nuclear strike, but rather a space-borne particle cannon capable of reducing the entire nation to dust in hours. But who pulled the trigger? Was it the Russians, making a final bid for world domination? Or was it a third power - some aspiring conqueror hoping to pit the superpowers against each other? It’s up to Blaine McCracken to find out.

After the crowning achievement of his career - an undercover operation that took down the New York Mob - Donnie Brasco thought he had left the FBI for good. But when two agents corner him at the funeral of his mentor, Paul Weinman, Donnie finds himself inexorably drawn back into the game. Weinman had been running a case so secret and fraught with danger that all Donnie can uncover are a few cryptic clues - just enough to send him down a trail that imperils him as well as his family.

Imprisoned in Nicaragua, an NFL star must escape to the United States to warn the government of an impending terrorist attack - before the sinister forces of the international intelligence community silence him forever.

Still staying at the Hill House hotel while her beloved home is being rebuilt, Jessica Fletcher finds herself sharing the space for a weekend with a dozen members of a wedding party who have gathered there for a rehearsal dinner. The families of the bride and groom can't stand each other but have agreed to put aside years of long-simmering tension to celebrate the nuptials. Unfortunately, a historic blizzard that dumps nearly five feet of snow on Cabot Cove, leaving everyone stranded. But the hotel guests have bigger things to worry about, because a murderer has shown up uninvited.

Since he first went behind enemy lines in Vietnam, Blaine McCracken has faced death on every continent. In the line of fire he is an iron man, but now he faces a different challenge: fatherhood. His son, Matt, is 13 - the unknown product of a long ago tryst. When the boy’s mother dies, McCracken goes to England to meet him. He finds a son cut in his father’s mold: a young athlete determined to put his body at risk to serve his country.

At a maximum-security prison for the criminally insane, 84 of the most dangerous psycopaths alive have vanished from their cells without a trace. Leading their ranks: the Candy Man - the most ruthlessly brilliant serial killer ever in captivity. The only way to catch a crazed killer is to think like one. Rogue agent Jared Kimberlain - the most dangerous man who ever worked for the forces of good - is the only man driven enough to do the job. Or die trying.

Far beneath the sands of Alexandria, an archaeological team digs deeper than anyone has before, seeking an ancient power older than the pyramids. What they unearth is an evil that threatens the whole world. First it targets the worst of humanity: Ex-Nazis, Central American warlords, and the pushers who peddle drugs to children are found massacred, ripped limb from limb without having fired a shot in their own defense. But the next to die will be ordinary people.