Bücher von Larry Darter

Bloodied clothing and an unexplained injury. A night lost to an alcohol-fueled blackout. The discovery of a grisly murder. A powerful politician's son awakens to find his hand injured, his girlfriend missing, and his memory a blank. When Dylan Quinn, a young naval aviator and the son of the U.S. Senate majority leader, awakens with a hangover to find his hand injured, his clothes bloodied, and his memory of the previous evening all but wiped out by an alcohol-related blackout, he turns to Honolulu private investigator T. J. O'Sullivan for help.Quinn tells T. J. all he can recall are fragmentary memories of a heated argument with his girlfriend. And he's learned she failed to return home the night before. Because of the unidentified blood found on his clothes, an unexplained injury, and his missing girlfriend, Quinn fears the evening they spent together may have ended violently. While T. J. helps her client reconstruct the past 24-hours of his life, the Honolulu police discover the body of Quinn's girlfriend, dead of multiple stab wounds, floating in the Honolulu marina. After the police arrest her client for murder, unconvinced he's guilty, T. J. opts to run her own parallel investigation of the murder. The investigation, though, puts her at odds with the head of the HPD criminal investigation division. What she uncovers is a complicated tale that's been decades in the making, a story full of twists, turns, and explosive revelations. T. J. races against time to find the truth behind the killing before her client goes on trial for murder, producing a scandal that could bring down the most powerful man in the senate. She must contend with secretive enemies lurking in the shadows, waiting for their moment to step forward and strike. The knives are out, and O'Sullivan must dodge them all to get to the truth about who killed her client's girlfriend and why. Did Quinn stab his girlfriend to death during an argument? Or is he the victim of a conspiracy as cunning as it is complex? And how does it all connect to his father, the most powerful politician in the U.S. Senate?

Hamstrung by the fallout from the pandemic and budget cuts thanks to the defund the police movement, the LAPD's elite Homicide Special Section gets caught short-handed when a North Hollywood murder involving a celebrity actor goes down. The Robbery-Homicide Division commander pulls Detective Howard Drew and his partner Amy Li from Open-Unsolved to spearhead the high-profile investigation.Temporary assignment to Homicide Special puts Howard squarely into the midst of a media firestorm when he takes the lead on the murder investigation after someone shoots to death the wife of a famous Hollywood actor outside a popular Studio City restaurant. It's been a while since Drew and his partner at Open-Unsolved have caught a fresh kill, but Howard is determined to make the most of the unexpected opportunity. But the moment he arrives at the scene, Howard quickly discovers something about the case doesn't add up. The actor gives his statement, but the evidence tells an entirely different story.As the pressure from the tenth floor of LAPD headquarters mounts, demanding a quick resolution of the case, Drew wonders why the brass chose him to lead the investigation. Then, just when he thinks he's building momentum on the case, things go sideways when an old nemesis in the command staff blind sides him. At odds with his superiors, and distracted by a simmering romance that starts to boil over in the middle of the investigation, Howard is as off balance as he's ever been. Running on instinct and his commitment to getting justice for every victim, and with everything to lose, Drew must prove himself not just by clearing the case by arrest, but by surviving it.

Hamstrung by the fallout from the pandemic and budget cuts thanks to the defund the police movement, the LAPD's elite Homicide Special Section gets caught short-handed when a North Hollywood murder involving a celebrity actor goes down. The Robbery-Homicide Division commander pulls Detective Howard Drew and his partner Amy Li from Open-Unsolved to spearhead the high-profile investigation. Temporary assignment to Homicide Special puts Howard squarely into the midst of a media firestorm when he takes the lead on the murder investigation after someone shoots to death the wife of a famous Hollywood actor outside a popular Studio City restaurant. It's been a while since Drew and his partner at Open-Unsolved have caught a fresh kill, but Howard is determined to make the most of the unexpected opportunity. But the moment he arrives at the scene, Howard quickly discovers something about the case doesn't add up. The actor gives his statement, but the evidence tells an entirely different story.As the pressure from the tenth floor of LAPD headquarters mounts, demanding a quick resolution of the case, Drew wonders why the brass chose him to lead the investigation. Then, just when he thinks he's building momentum on the case, things go sideways when an old nemesis in the command staff blind sides him. At odds with his superiors, and distracted by a simmering romance that starts to boil over in the middle of the investigation, Howard is as off balance as he's ever been. Running on instinct and his commitment to getting justice for every victim, and with everything to lose, Drew must prove himself not just by clearing the case by arrest, but by surviving it.

China Doll, another comical and exciting adventure, ripped straight from the files of Honolulu's most incorrigible and languid, soft-boiled private eye, Richard Bishop. People come to Richard Bishop's shabby Hotel Street office for professional help when trouble raises its ugly head because trouble is his business. But when the private investigator accepts an assignment from Nikki Kwan, a stunning and curvaceous China doll, to protect her and to deliver a sealed envelope to her ex-boyfriend, Rick soon has plenty of trouble all his own. He finds himself squarely in the crosshairs of rival Chinatown mobsters who want his client and him dead. As the drama unfolds, the criminals also take aim at Rick's gorgeous blonde Australian girlfriend, Sally Jayne Fisher. Even after enlisting the aid of Lieutenant David Chang, his friend and former partner at HPD, Rick still collects the usual assortment of bumps, bruises, cracked ribs, and lacerations as the stumbling, bumbling gumshoe struggles to stay out of the hospital and save the lives of his client and his girl, not to mention his own. Can Bishop and Lieutenant Chang take down the mobsters before it's too late? Or will the Chinatown gangsters prevail, handing Chang three more homicides to investigate? China Doll is the fifth book in Larry Darter's humorous, soft-boiled Rick Bishop, Private Investigator series from Fedora Press, featuring Honolulu's most inept and indolent gumshoe. But you may enjoy reading the books in any order.

A troubled sixteen-year-old girl from a dysfunctional family. The dark world of drugs, pimps, and teenage prostitution. A private investigator determined to make a difference. On the surface, except for a strict, ill-tempered step-father, Bridgette Carpenter seems to have everything a teenage girl could want. She has a family, nice clothes and lives in a home in a quiet middle-class LA neighborhood. But, if everything is so right, why does everything seem so wrong? Malone finds out when he hires on to go after a runaway girl. Unfortunately, by the time Malone picks up her trail, Bridgette has already traveled to a place that seems a million miles away from her suburban home in Echo Park. Now she is caught up in the dark world of drugs, pimps, and sexual exploitation-a kind of hell on earth inhabited by people who care only about making a fast buck and savoring forbidden pleasures. Can Malone find Bridgette in time before she falls victim to appalling, unspeakable acts that will steal what's left of her childhood and perhaps her very life?

When a mother and her young daughter are found dead of carbon monoxide poisoning in a car parked at an overlook off a Hollywood freeway, it appears they are victims of a culturally driven parent-child suicide. LAPD Detective Howard Drew faces his first real test as a new lead homicide investigator as he follows a twisted trail of clues to find the truth in his most challenging case yet.The Pendulum is the second novel featuring Detective Howard Drew in a new fast-paced police procedural series set in Los Angeles that crime fiction fans won''t want to miss.When a 3 A.M. call out sends West Bureau homicide Detective Howard Drew to an overlook above Hollywood Bowl, he finds an Asian woman and her six-year-old daughter dead inside a vehicle with a garden hose running from the exhaust pipe into a rear window. The initial evidence points to the cultural practice called oyako shinju in Japan, a ritual child-parent suicide committed after the woman was shamed by her husband''s adultery.  And as the truth emerges, it becomes more and more apparent that things may not be as they appear. Drew and his new partner, Detective Cici Ruiz, suspect they are being misled by someone very deceptive... very cunning... and very deadly who staged the scene to look like oyako shinju. As the detectives dig to uncover the truth, the pendulum of opinion swings back and forth. Was it child-parent suicide? Or was it a double-homicide staged to throw the homicide investigators off track?Crime fiction author Larry Darter has created a dark, fast-paced suspense thriller filled with stark realism that cuts to the very core of the crimes real life LAPD homicide detectives face. Once you start reading, there''s no turning back.

When a routine missing persons case goes sideways, Los Angeles private eye Malone must once again descend into the seedy underbelly of the City of Angels in his quest to find two missing Brentwood socialites and to find the answers to some very pressing questions.When two young Kardashian-like sisters, Brentwood debutantes, go missing, their father calls in Malone to find them. The client, the ultra-wealthy owner of Los Angeles'' largest luxury car dealership and a candidate for the Los Angeles city council with a trophy wife half his age, can''t imagine where his daughters have gone. Malone embarks on what he expects to be a routine missing persons gig, a simple bread and butter case for a gumshoe, but things get complicated. After Malone interviews one of the missing girl''s close friends, she inexplicably commits suicide. Next, there''s a mysterious murder. He uncovers hints of blackmail. Once again, Malone must descend into the seedy underbelly of the City of Angeles in his quest to find the missing young women and get the answers to some very pressing questions, including a few about himself.

A Malone Novel. In this latest thriller featuring the intrepid Los Angeles PI, Malone gets reacquainted with some old friends and meets new enemies in a troubling case that threatens to shake the City of Angels to its core.

A search for the estranged husband of a rich young thing from Boston seeking reconciliation leads L. A. private detective Ben Malone south of the border to the exotic locales of the Mexican Riviera and into an entanglement with a trio of ruthless grifters who will stop at nothing including murder to protect their confidence scheme."It was one of those clear, sunny afternoons we get in Los Angeles in the early spring after a rain. There was still snow on the peaks of the San Gabriel Mountains, but the Hollywood Hills were green, and the jacaranda trees were blooming in Beverly Hills." So begins Foul Play, the sixth novel in the private investigator series of crime and suspense thrillers featuring Los Angeles private eye Ben Malone. Business is a little slow, and Malone is feeling restless until L. A. attorney Liz Harper calls with a job: a young, beautiful, and desperate woman wants Malone to find her estranged husband. Malone sets out on his search, almost immediately discovering the man's whereabouts. But that only propels him into a series of bewildering events and a web of fraud, deceit, and murder.

When two private investigators team up to recover some ridiculously expensive stolen jewels, together, they must push their skills - and their lives - to the ultimate limit. And along the way, they discover the true meaning of loyalty and friendship...When a single diamond surfaces fifteen years after an armed robbery crew pulled a daring daylight heist, the biggest jewel theft in LA history, the insurance company that absorbed the costly claim, hires Malone to look for the rest of the missing $68 million worth of the rarest and most valuable gemstones on the planet.Finding the diamonds means Malone must first find Kyle Murray, the sole surviving member of the crew who recently completed his fifteen-year prison stretch for his part in the robbery. But Malone finds it isn''t easy to find a man determined not to be found. Murray''s trail takes Malone through California, then to Toronto, Canada, and finally to New Zealand.While looking for Murray, Malone suddenly finds himself drawn into a deadly game of cat and mouse - and he''s already several moves behind - with two other people determined to find Murray and the diamonds before he does. And their first attempt to kill Malone to rid themselves of the competition is only the beginning...Malone and his former protégé, Honolulu P.I. and New Zealand ex-pat T. J. O''Sullivan, team up once again. And they must find Kyle Murray and the diamonds fast - while heading for a showdown that may well be their last.Foregone Conclusion is the fourth novel in the thrilling Malone Private Investigator Series of Crime and Suspense Thrillers. If you like breathtaking action, and laugh-out-loud humor, with a hint of romance, then you''ll love this edge-of-your-seat detective story. Perfect for fans of Robert B. Parker''s Spencer, Raymond Chandler''s Philip Marlowe, and Ace Atkins'' Quinn Colson. You may enjoy reading the Malone series in any order.

Heart pounding thriller and suspense detective tale that stretches from Honolulu to Hong Kong. New Zealand ex-pat and Honolulu PI T. J. O'Sullivan, follows the trail of a con man to Hong Kong hoping to recover her client's half a million dollars' worth of stolen jewelry. But she never expected the case would catapult her into a deadly clash with an international crime syndicate that erupts in such danger and violence it threatens not only her life but the lives of everyone she loves. Madison Edwards, a wealthy but lonely widow from Los Angeles, thought she'd found her soulmate on an online dating site. She fell so hard for the handsome, seemingly cultured Bernard Clemens, Ph.D. that she jumps at the chance when he invites her to Hawaii for a first face-to-face meeting. But when she awakens the morning after she and Clemens were intimate for the first time, Clemens was missing from her bed along with a quarter-million dollars worth of her jewelry taken from the hotel room safe. A Los Angeles private eye who had done work for Madison's late husband, Ben Malone, refers her to T. J. O'Sullivan for help. While not hopeful of recovering her client's jewelry, O' Sullivan thinks finding and confronting Clemens, a self-proclaimed professor of comparative literature at a local university, will be easy enough...until she starts to learn more about the man. Bernard Clemens isn't even his real name, and he isn't a professor at all. Instead "Bernie Clements" is a career thief, an ex-con who preys on the lovelorn, divorced or widowed middle-aged wealthy women, by catfishing and fleecing them. Madison Edwards is just his latest victim. Clements disappears to Hong Kong, leaving behind not only a string of jilted lovers but a very angry bunch of former criminal associates in a Chinese organized crime syndicate called the Triads, bent on revenge after Bernie conned them too. Between trying to track down Clements in a foreign city, and trying to steer clear of the Chinese gangsters, O'Sullivan's case grows more complicated by the day. As T. J., her friend Jackie, and Tsang Chun-wah, a local Hong Kong private detective that T. J. hires to help with the case, search for Clements and try to recover the jewelry, things really start to spiral out of control when Jackie Fitzgerald is abducted by the gangsters. Honolulu Blues is the second novel in a female private investigator crime and suspense thriller series that features breathtaking action, chilling suspense, laugh-out-loud humor, and a hint of romance.

New Zealand ex-pat and Honolulu PI T. J. O'Sullivan, follows the trail of a con man to Hong Kong hoping to recover her client's half a million dollars' worth of stolen jewelry. But she never expected the case would catapult her into a deadly clash with an international crime syndicate that erupts in such danger and violence it threatens not only her life but the lives of everyone she loves. Madison Edwards, a wealthy but lonely widow from Los Angeles, thought she'd found her soulmate on an online dating site. She fell so hard for the handsome, seemingly cultured Bernard Clemens, Ph.D. that she jumps at the chance when he invites her to Hawaii for a first face-to-face meeting. But when she awakens the morning after she and Clemens were intimate for the first time, Clemens was missing from her bed along with a quarter-million dollars worth of her jewelry taken from the hotel room safe. A Los Angeles private eye who had done work for Madison's late husband, Ben Malone, refers her to T. J. O'Sullivan for help. While not hopeful of recovering her client's jewelry, O' Sullivan thinks finding and confronting Clemens, a self-proclaimed professor of comparative literature at a local university, will be easy enough...until she starts to learn more about the man. Bernard Clemens isn't even his real name, and he isn't a professor at all. Instead "Bernie Clements" is a career thief, an ex-con who preys on the lovelorn, divorced or widowed middle-aged wealthy women, by catfishing and fleecing them. Madison Edwards is just his latest victim. Clements disappears to Hong Kong, leaving behind not only a string of jilted lovers but a very angry bunch of former criminal associates in a Chinese organized crime syndicate called the Triads, bent on revenge after Bernie conned them too. Between trying to track down Clements in a foreign city, and trying to steer clear of the Chinese gangsters, O'Sullivan's case grows more complicated by the day. As T. J., her friend Jackie, and Tsang Chun-wah, a local Hong Kong private detective that T. J. hires to help with the case, search for Clements and try to recover the jewelry, things really start to spiral out of control when Jackie Fitzgerald is abducted by the gangsters. Honolulu Blues is the second novel in a female private investigator crime and suspense thriller series that features breathtaking action, chilling suspense, laugh-out-loud humor, and a hint of romance.

Here is the novel that reveals tough-as-nails Honolulu private investigator T.J. O'Sullivan's romantic, sexier side-the third book in an action-packed detective mystery series.On the trail of a stolen ancient Chinese cultural relic called Tiger Ying, T.J. finds herself entangled not only in a murder, but in a steamy love triangle, dating two good-looking sexy men at the same time. T.J. isn't always right, but she is never indecisive. She isn't looking to choose. She wants to keep them both. But can she juggle two lovers and still find the time to solve the case of The Chinese Tiger Ying?New Zealand expat and Honolulu private detective T.J. O'Sullivan is good at finding things-whether it's missing persons, stolen jewels, or the evidence that outs a cheating spouse. When a Honolulu antiques and cultural artifacts dealer hires T.J. to find a stolen three-thousand year old Chinese cultural relic called Tiger Ying, she gets busy looking. But that's not all T.J. is looking to find.Languishing in unhappiness and despair fueled by her unrequited love for former mentor and colleague Ben Malone, T.J. is desperate to find a way to lift her sagging spirits and someone to fill the gaping romantic void in her life. Enter Nick, a gorgeous guy T.J. runs into while working her case. He seems to tick all the boxes, offering exactly what she thinks she wants and needs-a casual, unstructured relationship with heaps of NSA intimacy. But just when things seem to go so right it gets complicated.T.J. finds herself hooking up with her Honolulu detective ex-boyfriend who is helping with her case. Before she knows it she's dating two hotties at the same time and loving every delicious moment. T.J. isn't trapped in indecision. She has no intention of making a choice. Instead, she is stubbornly determined to hang on to both men. The two of them are so different, but both have qualities that spark her interest and her passions.Can T.J. find time to focus on solving her case while juggling two seriously hot lovers? Worse yet, will the lies and sneaking around catch up to her in the end causing her romantic life to go up in flames, leaving her back where she started, sad and alone?

When Los Angeles P.I. T. J. O'Sullivan is sent to Honolulu by her boss to track down a client's missing daughter, it seems like a simple missing person case. O'Sullivan is excited by the prospect of mixing a little business with some pleasure on the beaches of Waikiki. But the case turns out to be anything but routine. In fact, it becomes a regular mare's nest of extortion, betrayal, and murder.Only after arriving in Hawaii does T. J. learn from the client his daughter didn't actually go missing. Instead, she has been abducted and is being held for ransom. To make matters worse, while T. J. tries to get a lead on the daughter, she has to fend off the sexual advances of her predatory client. The client gets murdered, and T. J. gets framed. Now she must solve at least one murder to prove her own innocence, resolve a criminal conspiracy involving her dead client's own family, and save herself from the clutches of some serious bad guys.