Looking for one of the latest PI novels?
Listed below is a selection of private investigator novels scheduled to be released in July 2020. Included is a brief synopsis provided by the publisher along with information about where the book sits within their relevant series (or whether they are stand-alone novels). Click here for new releases from June 2020.
Indigo by Loren D. Estleman (pub. Forge)
6th book in the Valentino series
Publishers Synopsis
Film detective Valentino is summoned to the estate of Ignacio Bozel to collect a prized donation to the university’s movie library: Bleak Street, a film from the classic noir period, thought lost for more than sixty years.
Bleak Street was never released. Its star, Van Oliver, a gifted and charismatic actor with alleged ties to the mob, disappeared while the project was in post-production, presumably murdered by gangland rivals: another one of Hollywood’s unsolved mysteries. Studio bosses elected to shelve the film rather than risk box-office failure. UCLA’s PR Department is excited about the acquisition, but only if Valentino can find a way to sell it in the mainstream media by way of a sensational discovery to coincide with its release: “We want to know what happened to Oliver.”
A simple quest for a few hundred yards of celluloid opens a portal into a place darker than night.
The House on Widows Hill by Simon R. Green (pub. Severn House)
9th book in the Ishmael Jones series
Publishers Synopsis
Ishmael Jones investigates a haunted house . . . but is haunted by his own past in the latest of this quirky paranormal mystery series.
Harrow House has remained empty for years. Now, on behalf of an anonymous prospective buyer, Ishmael and Penny are spending a night there in order to investigate the rumours of strange lights, mysterious voices, unexplained disappearances, and establish whether the house is really haunted. What really happened at Harrow House all those years ago?
From the Grave by David Housewright (pub. Minotaur)
17th book in the Mac Mackenzie series
Publishers Synopsis
A past case comes back to haunt Twin Cities P.I. McKenzie as a stolen sum of money threatens to resurface in From the Grave, the next mystery in David Housewright’s award-winning series.
Once a police detective in St. Paul, Minnesota, Rushmore McKenzie became an unlikely millionaire and an occasional unlicensed private investigator, doing favors for friends. But this time, he finds himself in dire need of working on his own behalf.
His dear friend and first love Shelby Dunston attends a public reading by a psychic medium with the hope of connecting with her grandfather one final time. Instead, she hears McKenzie’s name spoken by the psychic in connection with a huge sum of stolen—and missing—money.
Caught in a world of psychic mediums, with a man from his past with a stake in the future, and more than one party willing to go to great and deadly lengths to get involved, McKenzie must figure out just how much he’s willing to believe—like his life depends on it—before everything takes a much darker turn.
Once You Go This Far by Kristen Lepionka (pub. Minotaur)
4th book in the Roxanne Weary series
Publishers Synopsis
Junior-high school nurse Rebecca Newsome was an experienced hiker—until she plummeted to her death at the bottom of a ravine in a Columbus metro park. Her daughter, Maggie, doesn't believe it was an accident, and Rebecca's ex-husband is her prime suspect. But he's a well-connected ex-cop and Maggie is certain that's the reason no one will listen to her. PI Roxane Weary quickly uncovers that the dead woman's ex is definitely a jerk, but is he a murderer?
As she pieces together the days before Rebecca died, what Roxane finds doesn't quite add up. From a series of trips to Detroit and across the border to a casino in Windsor, Canada, to strange calls from Rebecca's home to a charismatic political candidate, to a women's health organization, to a secretive church group that seems to have more information about its members than it should, Roxane needs to figure out how everything is connected before a dangerous secret gets someone else killed.
A Time To Die by Barbara Nadel (pub. Allison & Busby)
6th book in the Hakim & Arnold series
Publishers Synopsis
Ever since it was built in 1912, Woolwich Foot Tunnel has been the subject of rumour and speculation. Running underneath the Thames it connects north and south, and in the hot summer of 1976, when young John Saunders apparently entered the Tunnel and completely disappeared on his way to his sister’s house, it was a grim and frightening place.
John was never seen again until forty-two years later, complete with an American accent. Happy to submit to the DNA testing his sister Brenda demands, this man is definitely John Saunders, but when nothing that he tells Brenda rings true, she decides to enlist the services of Hakim and Arnold to try and uncover the truth. He is who he says he is, but his story about what happened between 1976 and 2018 makes no sense. Why has he come back now … what does he want?
Daughters of Darkness by Sally Spencer (pub. Severn House)
3rd book in the Jennie Redhead series
Publishers Synopsis
Private investigator Jennie Redhead is hired to investigate a murder that's left the police baffled, in this gripping historical mystery set partly in 1970's Oxford and partly in war-torn 1940's London.
Oxford, 1975. Three years ago, world-renowned anthropologist Grace Stockton was slain in a brutal, unprovoked attack which left the police baffled. But Grace's daughter refuses to accept that the trail has run cold. Determined to find out who killed her mother, she knows just the woman for the job: private investigator Jennie Redhead.
Bad In Bardino by Nick Sweet (pub. Blurb)
Stand Alone
Publishers Synopsis
After private investigator Art Blakey is hired to find Gisela - the sister of femme fatale Inge Schwartz - dead bodies start to accumulate at an alarming pace. When Art discovers a shocking link to the kidnapper, he gets tangled in a web of lies, deceit and passion. Soon, Art finds himself navigating a maze of ex-lovers, mafia gangsters, reporters and art dealers. Can he rise to the occasion and find the damsel in distress, or is it already too late?