Steve Hamilton brings another installment in his five-novel Alex McKnight series in North of Nowhere, published by Thomas Dunne Books, copyright 2013. The novel begins with Alex McKnight receiving an invitation to a friend’s poker game since the usual player, the sixth man, could not attend that evening.  The game will be held at a rich land developer’s mansion on his newly bought six-sided felt poker table.  The game went well for most of the night as it is not a high stakes game but friendly and the home’s owner, a man named Vargas, provided good whiskey and snacks for the six players. Suddenly three men wearing masks and holding guns came rushing in and ordered everyone to lay face down on the floor and not to move.  One of these robbers picked out the home owner and ordered him upstairs to open his secret wall safe that Vargas had told very few people about.  Alex, from the floor, gets a look at one of the robber’s eyes and the athletic shoes he was wearing.  After talking to the police this remains their only clue as to who these bandits might be.  The developer is quite upset and accuses some of the players of having…

Amanda Cross brings forth a thrilling and dramatic mystery in The Puzzled Heart, published by Ballantine Books, copyright 1998. In this intriguing novel Kate Fansler and her husband Reed are faced with far-right-wing activists who object to her lectures supporting women’s rights.  Reed is kidnapped by these radicals and Kate is sent ransom notes demanding that she retract all her pro-feminist statements and declare that her lectures were improper if not wrong.  She is instructed to publish letters to all available newsletters as well as professional magazines stating that she was misguided in her teaching and lecturing. Confronted with the fact that her husband is being held hostage Kate seeks advice from her close friends, who happen to be lesbian partners, as well as private investigators.  Together they try to figure out who would be inclined to commit such an offensive assault up on a well respected professor of a prominent college.  They spend endless hours remembering who might have a reason to inflict the torture of the kidnapping of her beloved husband. The search focuses on the few that could be imagined as having any sort of animosity toward the Fansler family.  Kate and her friend Harriet finally narrow it down to…