Derrick Steele, a hard-drinking, lusty private detective working for Steele Investigations, is being framed for the murder of a hustler in downtown Los Angeles. Despite Derrick's efforts to solve the crime and clear his name, the body count continues to rise. It quickly becomes apparent that Derrick is facing the most dangerous adversary of his career. The action escalates when best friends Daniel McAllister, a New York private investigator, and Derrick's brother, Nathan, return to Los Angeles and join the agency. Still reeling from a tragic past relationship, Derrick struggles with his developing feelings for the handsome detective McAllister, who is equally smitten with the over-sexed Derrick. In addition to the blossoming romance, the arrival of Daniel and Nathan reveals a Steele family secret that will change Derrick's life forever. The action catapults to an explosive climax as the three detectives race to solve the murders, exonerate Derrick, and protect the lives and legacy of the Steele family.

A young and famous movie star is receiving death threats, and Derrick is on the case. Without warning, Warren O'Malley, Derrick's long-forgotten half-brother, arrives in Los Angeles, bringing with him his two formidable younger brothers. The trio is determined to claim their rightful place in the Steele family, or destroy them in the process. With Warren's arrival comes a dark secret from Daniel McAllister's past, one that Daniel is unwilling to reveal. As the tension between Derrick and Daniel begins to unravel their relationship, it also begins to threaten the detective agency itself. When Derrick realizes he is falling in love with the young movie star, he faces a heartbreaking decision. Will Derrick be able to save the young star in time? Can the Steeles pull together as a family to stave off this new series of threats? Will this be the end of the famous Steele Detective Agency?

Goodness may appear in many forms; evil need only take one. The Chicago PD Deviant Data Unit specializes in the dark and cruel aspects of criminal behavior. When a serial killer who leaves his victims oddly posed starts terrorizing the city, Detective Rafe Douglas leads the team tasked to find this sadistic killer. Still recovering from severe injuries sustained in the line of duty, Rafe’s tenuous hold on what is real is further tested by someone who wants in on the case and won’t take no for an answer. Private Investigator Ashley Scott experiences the world through unveiled eyes. She alone can see that Hell’s inhabitants are breaking free from their confines and are bringing their evil to Earth. She believes the killer isn’t human and knows she has to convince Rafe there are more things happening in the Windy City than anyone could possibly realize. Only together can they solve the secrets revealed in the killer’s brutal slayings.

Quiet and introverted graduate student Nicole Kennedy has always longed to do something far more adventurous than study politics from used textbooks. But when she spontaneously sets off for Africa to volunteer as a teacher over the summer, she gets more excitement than she could have ever imagined. Within hours of arriving in Kenya, Nicole finds herself at the center of an international conspiracy involving millions of dollars and being rescued by beautiful but infuriatingly arrogant government agent Kira Anthony. Despite her suspicions that Kira may not be who she claims to be, Nicole can’t seem to fight her growing attraction to the beguiling blonde. Could it be the thrill, the danger, the close proximity that explains her feelings—or is it a glimpse of something she’s never known and can’t bear to lose?

Evan McGarrity is a sophomore at Milton University in Western New York. Tired of one-night stands, he’s looking for honest love and someone to share his life with. When he meets Sebastian Tantalos, his life unexpectedly takes a turn for the better. The new romance is everything Evan has hoped for: Sebastian is funny, intelligent, exciting, articulate, and handsome as hell. Just as Evan realizes he’s starting to fall in love with Sebastian, trouble in the form of Sebastian’s old boyfriend, Brent, rears its ugly head. Brent is determined to win Sebastian back, no matter the cost and by any means necessary. As Brent begins to weave his web of hatred and deceit, Evan starts to doubt Sebastian’s love for him. When Evan turns to his old flame for comfort, the relationship is torn apart. Can these two men find their way back to each other and salvage their love?

Six weeks after Hurricane Katrina, an emotionally battered Chanse returns to a New Orleans that is a battered shell of its former vibrant self to try to pull together the shattered pieces of his life. But on arriving, he discovers that his last client before the storm was murdered shortly after she hired him to find her long missing father—and Chanse is drawn into the Verlaine family's deadly web of lies and secrets as he tries to find his client's killer against the backdrop of unbelievable destruction. The third Chanse MacLeod mystery, and winner of the Lambda Literary Award.

Life coach Elaine Raitt is educated, elegant, and dedicated to her profession. Blue-collar boi Joey Lang is too insecure to even approach her—that is until her well-meaning but meddling best friend Lisa decides to break the ice and makes Joey a life-coaching appointment with Elaine. A session meant to bring clarity only leaves them both feeling more confused about their purpose in life and love. Will Joey be able to find the strength to chase the woman of her dreams, and even if she does, will Elaine be willing to risk the life she loves for the woman who could be the love of her life?

Twelve O’Clock Tales is the fourth collection of short fiction by legendary novelist and memoirist, Felice Picano (The Lure, Like People in History, True Stories). A personal homage to the storytellers of his youth, Edgar Allen Poe, E.F. Benson, and H. P. Lovecraft, as well as his acquaintances, Arthur C. Clarke and Harlan Ellison. Thirteen dark tales, eerie, bizarre, and dreamlike, the tales will thrill and disturb, discomfort and titillate, enthrall and leave you wondering. Picano ranges across time and space, from tribal West Africa to the American heartland, to a lab in Venezuela, and a California Highway fifteen years from now. His characters range from a teen accident survivor with a secret, to a far-future scholar forced to travel to a galactic backwater, to a retired L.A. cop who dabbles in astrology, and a peasant girl in B.C.E. Israel encountering the strangest of strangers. The thirteen tales include brand new stories and acknowledged Picano masterworks collected here for the first time.

When truth is buried so deep it can kill, will the love of one woman be enough to save the life of another? Kara Lynch lives a simple life as a ranger in WashingtonÕs Riverside State Park. When dead bodies begin to turn up, her simple life vanishes. Adopted at birth, Kara has no idea her birthright is at the center of the murders and is the sole reason her life hangs in the balance. Help comes in the form of wolf expert, Camille ÒCamÓ Black Wolf. Tall and mysterious, Cam is both a blessing and a curseÑitÕs hard to concentrate on saving hikers when KaraÕs fighting the urge to run her hands all over CamÕs body. With assistance from vampire Riah Preston and her partner Adriana James of the Spiritus Group, they race to stop a preternatural killer. But will the secret they uncover give Kara wings or send her to the grave?

With her life as a private investigator in Chicago firmly established, Jan Roberts can often forget where she came from—a backwoods survivalist camp run by her paranoid, dictatorial father. After risking her life at sixteen to escape the camp, she finds it hard to understand the runaway teenager she's been hired to find. With each step on the trail to find her, Jan realizes the girl is running to the same part of Idaho she fled, a digital age version of her father's way of life. Complicating her mission is the new owner of the security firm she works for, a former British agent who has her own secrets to hide. When the sparks fly between them, Jan finds Catherine wanting to share not only her bed, but also her quest to find the missing teen. The journey to the deep woods of Idaho is a voyage to the heart of darkness for Jan, where the reality of her past can no longer be contained, nor her feelings for Catherine denied.