Murder In Santa Barbara

One of the top trial attorneys in the state, Deputy District Attorney Joshua Rizzetti prosecutes crime in the scenic, coastal town of Santa Barbara. He's successfully tried several murder cases, all without a scratch. Suddenly, in preparing a simple misdemeanor case for trial, everything changes. At the eleventh hour, the defendant's trial date gets postponed by a murder, seemingly unrelated to the case. Or is it? After Josh suspects there is a connection between his case and the murder, he digs further. But the deeper he goes, the more dangerous it gets. Greed, corruption, deceit and revenge lead to threats and murder knocking on his door. Caught in the crosshairs, the young prosecutor races to find the link to his case and uncover the mystery behind the murder. And if he can't quickly figure out their connection, the next murder will be his.

An account of the murder of Phillip Bogdanoff describes how two youths, at the urging of Bogdanoff's stepdaughter and with the consent of his wife, murdered Bodganoff's as he was sunbathing on the beach. Original.

In this legal thriller from the New York Times–bestselling author of Against the Wind, breaking into a mansion for a laugh turns into a sobering crime. Maria Estrada, a hard-partying girl with family ties to some of the toughest gangsters in California, had no idea an old mansion could be so beautiful. The boy who broke into it with her had a feeling she might be impressed. But by the time the night is over, Maria has been brutally killed, and the boy is nowhere to be found. It’s up to PI Kate Blanchard and Luke Garrison, a criminal lawyer, to decipher what happened in the grand old mansion. To bring Maria’s killer to justice, they must locate the elusive connection between the poverty where she was raised and the affluence of where she died.

Robbie Jordan is temporarily leaving Pans ’N Pancakes, her country store in South Lick, Indiana, to visit Santa Barbara, California—where wildfire smoke tinges the air, but a more immediate danger may lie in wait . . . While looking forward to her high school reunion back in California, Robbie’s anticipation is complicated by memories of her mother’s untimely death. At first, she has fun hanging out with her old classmates and reuniting with the local flavors—avocados, citrus, fish, and spicy Cali-Mex dishes. But then she gets wind of rumors that her mother, an environmental activist, may not have died of natural causes. With the help of friends, Robbie starts clearing the smoke surrounding the mystery—but what she finds could make it hard to get back to Indiana alive . . . Includes Recipes for You to Try!

Two murder cases take the Santa Barbara PI into the dark secrets that lurk beneath domestic bliss in this mystery thriller by the author of Girl Trap. Private investigator Madeline Dawkins has just received two cases, each concerning a grieving widow. One insists that she didn’t kill her much older husband. The other insists that her husband’s death was no suicide. Meanwhile, Madeline’s own history with troubled marriage is about to resurface—now that her ex-husband Steve has made parole. Madeline and her partner, Mike Delaney, peer into the once-beautiful lives of two dead husbands, discovering the dirty secrets each man took to his grave. As they dig deeper into the sordid tales of greed and betrayal, disturbing connections begins to emerge. And Madeline realizes that a killer may still be at large, ready to turn another wife into a widow.

In 1908 the Potter Hotel dominated the oceanfront along Santa Barbara's West Beach. Thirty-six acres of lush gardens and pathways surrounded the luxurious six-story hotel with more than four hundred magnificent guest rooms. April of that year saw the arrival of the Great White Fleet as it stopped in various seaports around the globe, sent on a mission of good-will by President Theodore Roosevelt. How fortunate for the tiny town to be selected as one of the stopping points. It was a time for celebration. A time for community. A time for murder...

Thor Nis Christiansen was a Danish-American serial killer from Solvang, California. He committed his first three murders in late 1976 and early 1977, killing young women of similar appearance from nearby Isla Vista. His story is very hard-hitting and indeed at times unbearable to contemplate. It is a chance to step into the shoes of a monster who showed the world just how his heinous crimes intensified. Was his upbringing to blame; or a head injury, maybe a trauma in life that set his world alight? This is a case that is now over forty years old. A case that must be revisited due to its many elements of interest both scientifically and for future profiling purposes. How did Thor Nis Christiansen become a monster?

When a rich reclusive heiress turns up dead in her Montecito mansion, Kristi must clear her first client of the woman's murder. Unfortunately, her client, a poor ESL teacher, seems to be hiding something, and there are few other suspects. Worse, her growing attraction to the attorney who hired her pits her against the DA she's dating. To solve the mystery, Kristi must uncover how love and money factor into the case, and into her own life.

The true story of a triple murder that shocked a New York community and drew the interest of famed criminal defense attorney F. Lee Bailey. Twenty-seven-year-old Peter Egan, his wife Barbara Ann, and Peter’s younger brother Gerald were familiar to Watertown, New York, authorities long before December 31, 1964. The police suspected the brazen trio in a long string of burglaries and petty crimes. They were also under investigation by the FBI for grand theft auto. But on that New Year's night, the Egan family’s criminal career came to a violent end. All three were found with a bullet to the head at a rest stop off Interstate 81. The gruesome killings puzzled local and state police. Was it a random murder? A confrontation gone awry? Or a premeditated act of retribution by hardened criminals who feared the Egans would turn state's witness? Then, a surprise arrest was made. But when F. Lee Bailey, lawyer for the self-confessed Boston Strangler, entered the fray, the case took an unexpected twist that shrouded the murders in mystery to this day.