Looking for one of the latest PI novels?
Listed below is a selection of private investigator novels scheduled to be released in March 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 February 2020.
The Boy From the Woods by Harlan Coben (pub. Grand Central)
Stand Alone
Publisher's Synopsis
A man with a mysterious past must find a missing teenage girl in this shocking thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Run Away.
Thirty years ago, Wilde was found as a boy living feral in the woods, with no memory of his past. Now an adult, he still doesn’t know where he comes from, and another child has gone missing.
No one seems to take Naomi Pine’s disappearance seriously, not even her father — with one exception. Hester Crimstein, a television criminal attorney, knows through her grandson that Naomi was relentlessly bullied at school. Hester asks Wilde — with whom she shares a tragic connection — to use his unique skills to help find Naomi.
Wilde can’t ignore an outcast in trouble, but in order to find Naomi he must venture back into the community where he has never fit in, a place where the powerful are protected even when they harbor secrets that could destroy the lives of millions . . . secrets that Wilde must uncover before it’s too late.
Do No Harm by Max Allan Collins (pub. Forge)
16th book in the Nathan Heller series
Publisher's Synopsis
It's 1954 and Heller takes on the Sam Sheppard case—a young doctor is startled from sleep and discovers his wife brutally murdered. He claims that a mysterious intruder killed his wife. But all the evidence points to a disturbed husband who has grown tired of married life and yearned to be free at all costs. Sheppard is swiftly convicted and sent to rot in prison.
Just how firm was the evidence…and was it tampered with to fit a convenient narrative to settle scores and push political agendas? Nathan’s old friend Elliot Ness calls in a favor and as Nathan digs into the case he becomes convinced of Sheppard’s innocence. But Nate can’t prove it and has to let the case drop.
The road to justice is sometimes a long one. Heller's given another chance years later and this time he's determined to free the man…even if it brings his own death a bit closer.
Gone By Midnight by Candice Fox (pub. Forge)
3rd book in the Crimson Lake series
Publisher's Synopsis
Crimson Lake is where people with dark pasts come to disappear—and where others vanish into thin air…
When Sara Farrow’s son goes missing from a locked hotel room, she frantically turns for help to Crimson Lake’s unlikeliest private investigators—disgraced cop Ted Conkaffey and convicted killer Amanda Pharrell.
Just the sort of twisted puzzle that gets Amanda’s blood pumping, the disappearance couldn’t have come at a worse time for Ted. He has just this one week with Lillian, the daughter he barely knows…but the clock is ticking for the lost boy.
Amanda and Ted’s search dredges up the area’s worst characters, and the danger they uncover could well put Ted’s own child in deadly peril.
Line of Sight by James Queally (pub. Polis)
Debut Novel
Publisher's Synopsis
The debut novel from award-winning crime reporter James Queally
All favors come with a cost, and after using what little favors he has in the Newark PD to get his private investigators license, former crime reporter Russell Avery finds himself paying.
He spends his days reluctantly keeping sideways cops out of the crosshairs of the Internal Affairs department. Until Keyonna Jackson, a social justice activist, presents him with a troubling video: a made-for-Youtube cell phone snippet chronicling the same kind of questionable use-of-force that had set New York City, Ferguson, and Cleveland on fire in recent years. The same use-of-force that he’s been covering up for Newark PD.
Now, the young black man who filmed this video is dead and the more questions Russell asks, the less his cop buddies like him. For the first time in his life, Russell finds himself on the wrong side of the guys with the badges and guns. When details of the shooting become public―and a city with race riots in its DNA flirts with the idea of letting history repeat itself―Russell finds himself allying with street activists and gang members as he races to put together the biggest story of his life… before the city he needs to tell it to burns down around him.
A Murderous Relation by Deanna Raybourn (pub. Berkley)
5th book in the Veronica Speedwell series
Publisher's Synopsis
A royal scandal’s connection to a brutal serial killer threatens London in this new Veronica Speedwell adventure from New York Times bestselling and Edgar® Award–nominated author Deanna Raybourn.
Autumn 1888. Veronica Speedwell and her colleague Stoker are asked by Lady Wellingtonia Beauclerk to stop a potential scandal so explosive it threatens to rock the monarchy. Prince Albert Victor is a regular visitor to the most exclusive private club in London, and the proprietress, Madame Aurore, has received an expensive gift that can be traced back to the prince. Lady Wellie would like Veronica and Stoker to retrieve it from the club before scandal can break.
Worse yet, London is being terrorized by what would become the most notorious and elusive serial killer in history, Jack the Ripper—and Lady Wellie suspects the prince may be responsible.
Veronica and Stoker reluctantly agree to go undercover at Madame Auroreʼs high-class brothel, where a body soon turns up. Secrets are swirling around Veronica and the royal family—and it is up to Veronica and Stoker to find the truth, before it is too late for all of them.
The K Team by David Rosenfelt (pub. Minotaur Books)
1st book in the K Team series
Publisher's Synopsis
From bestselling mystery author David Rosenfelt comes a new series – a spinoff of the much beloved Andy Carpenter mysteries – about a dynamic new investigative team featuring a determined former cop and his loyal German Shepherd.
Corey Douglas and his K-9 partner, Simon Garfunkel, have recently retired from the police force. Not ready to give up the life yet, they come up with a proposal for fellow former cop, Laurie Carpenter, and her investigating partner, Marcus. Laurie and Marcus – who help out Laurie’s lawyer husband Andy on cases – have been chafing to jump back into investigating on their own, so they are in.
They call themselves the K Team, in honor of Simon. Their first job as private investigators comes to them from Judge Henry Henderson, who's known as a very tough but fair judge, and they've all come up against him in court at one time or another. Though it's hard to believe, Judge Henderson is being blackmailed and extorted, and he doesn't want to involve the police--he needs the K Team to figure out why.
Masquerade for Murder by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins (pub. Titan)
27th book in the Mike Hammer series
Publisher's Synopsis
After Mike Hammer witnesses Wall Street superstar Vincent Colby getting clipped by a speeding red Ferrari, the shaken victim’s stockbroker father hires Hammer to find the driver. But the toughest private eye of them all soon is caught up in a series of bizarre, seemingly unconnected slayings marked by a forbidden martial arts technique.
What do a lovely redhead, a short-tempered bartender, an exotic call girl, a murdered police inspector and a movie stuntman have to do with a scheme that might have transformed young Colby into a psychological time bomb?
The Now-And-Then Detective by William Wells (pub. Permanent Press)
1st book in the Jack Starkey series
Publisher's Synopsis
Retired Chicago homicide detective Jack Starkey is living his retirement dream in Fort Myers Beach, a little town on Florida’s Southwest Gulf Coast, where he owns a bar called The Drunken Parrot and resides on a houseboat named Phoenix. Jack’s friend, Chicago Tribune police reporter William Stevens, writes a series of best-selling crime novels based upon Jack’s career and pays Jack to edit them to make certain all the cop stuff is right.
But, every now and then, life in paradise can get a bit boring, so Jack agrees to help local police departments with murder investigations. When Henry Wilberforce, an 82-year-old Chicago billionaire, is murdered execution-style in his winter home in nearby Naples, Jack takes on the case.
He finds that Henry had recently been behaving strangely, dressing in costumes and giving away large amounts of his money randomly. Henry’s wife and son are deceased. His only living relatives are a nephew, Slater Babcock, a trust-fund slacker in Santa Monica, California, and two nieces, June Dumont, who is married to a prominent Washington, D.C., attorney, and Libby Leverton, the wife of a prominent Boston real estate developer. Henry hasn’t been in touch with them for many years.
A prime rule of a murder investigation is to ask: Who benefits? With no other suspects in sight, Jack wonders if any one of the cousins, or all of them acting in concert, and who must assume they are their uncle’s heirs, need his money badly enough to hire a hitman to stop Henry from giving away “their” money.
Jack’s investigation takes him to Santa Monica, Washington, and Boston, where dead-ends and false leads make The Case of the Dead Philanthropist one of the most challenging Jack Starkey has ever faced.