Left to die by his vengeful grandfather, rescued by outlaws, and raised by Native Americans, Johannes Verne is strengthened by his love for two women and his ambition to survive on the Palm Springs desert.

Miranda Brooks grew up in the stacks of her eccentric uncle Billy's bookstore, solving the inventive scavenger hunts he created just for her. On Miranda's twelfth birthday, Billy has a falling-out with her mother and disappears from Miranda's life. Sixteen years later she receives news that Billy has died and left her Prospero Books, which is teetering on bankruptcy--and one final scavenger hunt. Home in Los Angeles, Miranda finds clues that Billy...

There's a saying in Barstow, California, a decaying city in the scorching Mojave desert--The Interstate here only goes in one direction: Away. But it's the only place where ex-LAPD detective Beth McDade, after a staggering fall from grace, could get another badge...and a shot at redemption. Over a century ago, and just a few miles further into the bleak landscape, a desperate stranger ended up in Calico, a struggling mining town, also hoping for a...

When Meddelin Chan ends up accidentally killing her blind date, her meddlesome mother calls for her even more meddlesome aunties to help get rid of the body. Unfortunately, a dead body proves to be a lot more challenging to dispose of than one might anticipate--especially when it is accidentally shipped in a cake cooler to the over-the-top billionaire wedding that Meddy, her Ma, and her aunties are working, at an island resort on the California coastline....

Sam Reeves is a kindhearted psychologist who treats court-ordered clients. After one of his earliest patients-a pathological liar-starts revealing plausible new details from a long-unsolved serial murder case, he's compelled to report anonymously to the SDPD tip line, though his attempts to respect patient confidentiality land him face downand cuffed by the aggressive (and cute) Detective McKittrick. San Diego homicide detective Kit McKittrick loves...