Ike Schwartz mysteries

"The dark humor, a small community in a regional mystery, and a strong supporting cast of believable characters will appeal to Margaret Maron's readers." -Library Journal STARRED review Towns like Gainesboro, North Carolina, may be small but go big on local traditions. When funeral director and part-time deputy sheriff Barry Clayton and his childhood nemesis, Archie Donovan, Jr., unite to create a fundraising float in Gainesboro's annual Apple Festival...

2018 Macavity Award winner for Best Nonfiction 2018 Anthony Award nominee for Best Critical/Nonfiction Book This book tells the story of crime fiction published during the first half of the twentieth century. The diversity of this much-loved genre is breathtaking, and so much greater than many critics have suggested. To illustrate this, the leading expert on classic crime discusses one hundred books ranging from The Hound of the Baskervilles to...

Murder by witchcraft? Private investigator and former beauty queen Madeline Maclin thought she'd seen it all in her small North Carolina town of Celosia. Yet Evil Turns, fifth in the lively series by Jane Tesh, opens with a young man's body covered in strange occult symbols found in a local vineyard, putting Maddy on notice that there is more than one witch in the neighborhood. Years ago, a group of women in town formed Darkrose Coven, a practice...

Ike Schwartz, Sheriff of Picketsville, Virginia, and his fiancee Ruth Dennis, the President of a local university, cannot find peace and quiet at home after a trying year of academic and local politics. So, they elect to seek asylum on Scone Island, a rocky island four miles off the coast of Maine. Its lack of electricity, reliable water supply, and phone service guarantee their seclusion and peace. The fact that a suspicious accident resulted in...

The smoking remains of a car belonging to sheriff Ike Schwartz are found just outside Picketsville, Virginia. Since leaving the CIA, the sheriff has made many enemies at home and abroad. Is this a cop killing, or domestic terrorism? While the Picketsville sheriff's department mounts a manhunt for the responsible party, Ike's old CIA colleague, Charlie Garland, who has been monitoring Ike's life, joins the hunt.