Pudgy, plain, and newly divorced, Margot feels simultaneously invisible and entirely exposed, all her vulnerabilities on shameful display. She has a vague memory of having had friends or at least a social circle, but those easy pleasures now feel entirely beyond her grasp. Unable to muster much of a protest, she allows herself to be bundled off for a weekend in London, where she is — astonishingly — taken up by a thrillingly bohemian, artsy crowd and the irresistibly glamorous and powerfully sexual photographer at their center.

No fool, Margot understands she’s being used, even if she doesn’t understand exactly how or why. And though readers will imagine they know what lies in wait for Margot, the conclusion of this award-winning thriller will surprise…everybody.

“Excellent, fluid writing and sharp dialogue…both a thriller and an always interesting portrait of a woman groping her way into the light” — Tangled Web

“An incredible reading experience” — Smålänningen (Sweden)

“Alvtegen at her best” — Daily Telegraph (UK)

First in the Ellis Portal series

On the day he graduated from law school, there was little doubt that Ellis Portal would have a brilliant future. Indeed, he and five of his similarly gifted colleagues commemorated the splendor of their shared expectations with an expensive dinner and the presentation, to each, of a specially commissioned signet ring.

For a time, those expectations were borne out, and Ellis took his place at the top of Toronto society. However, he has fallen hard. Homeless now, cut off from his family, he lives in Toronto’s shadows and has almost succeeded in forgetting his own past. And then one day he makes a grisly discovery. It’s not unusual: all cities have their share of dead bodies. But on one finger is an unusual, unmistakable signet ring. And Ellis, against his will, begins to remember.

“Nearly irresistible” – Publishers Weekly

“A smart, suspenseful whodunit with unusual moral depth” – New York Times

“Complex and at times profoundly moving” – Denver Post

That’s the least of the revelations to greet Faith Zanetti on her return to Moscow, a city she last lived in some fifteen years ago. A lot has changed since then – no more Soviet Union, for one thing – but a lot hasn’t. The dead-eyed thugs who arrest Faith before she’s had time to unpack may no longer call themselves KGB, but they dance to that old familiar music. And while Faith is now a (semi) respectable journalist, rather than the tear-away teen bride of a Russian bootlegger, she’s about to learn a lesson that the Russians themselves have known all along: The past is never so deeply buried that it can’t reach out and bite you in the back.

But a storm is brewing for Alberg, just a few miles down the peninsula. Zoe Strachan was an angry child, and she’s grown into an angry, if eerily seductive woman. Over the years, she has built up elaborate structures to contain her anger, but now those structures have been shattered. A refugee from big-city policing, Alberg thinks he’s seen it all. But he’s not even going to know what hit him.

“Because the author knew the territory, the setting is authentic. And the political complexities of Chinese-Japanese-American relations during World War II add depth to the search for “dem bones,” which have yet to turn up.”

Read the full Newark Star-Ledger review of The Peking Man is Missing

The first Inspector Rostnikov mystery

Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov has a lot on his plate. His superiors in the Moscow police force are suspicious of his Jewish wife, the black-market copies of his beloved Ed McBain novels are getting tough to find, and his dreams of becoming a competitive weight-lifter are receding fast. And then there’s the famous dissident who’s been murdered right before his trial—a trial intended to showcase the wonders of the Soviet judicial system. Rostnikov is charged with finding the killer, but the arrest had better be acceptable to the KGB. And things only get trickier when the killer strikes again, displaying a fondness for weapons—a hammer, a sickle, a vodka bottle—with a particularly Russian resonance. Clearly, he’s making a statement, but what exactly is he saying? And can Rostnikov stop him before he says it again?

“Nobody writes character-driven crime fiction better than Mr. Kaminsky”—Dallas Morning News

Great for fans of Ed McBain and Gorky Park

A true romantic, Rainaldi is in thrall to music’s myths, particularly the stories about the “Messiah’s Sister,” a priceless, centuries-old – and possibly imaginary – violin. But his end is anything but romantic; the old fellow is brutally murdered and his workroom destroyed. It soon becomes clear that Rainaldi’s violins had something to do with his death, and while the police-chief, Guastafeste, knows little about the luthier’s world, Castiglione has the knowledge he needs.

Following the clues will take the two men to a decaying Venetian palazzo, to an English country estate, and deep into musical history, as they hunt for a secretive collector, a collection of letters, a mysterious portrait, and, perhaps…the Messiah’s Sister itself.

“A fascinating historical journey into the mystery of a legendary lost violin” – Sunday Telegraph (UK)

“From the first stirring theme to the last fading chord, mystery fans and music lovers alike will be captivated by Adam’s excellent contemporary thriller…Adam has constructed this tale with all the care and craftsmanship that Stradivari put into his instruments” – Publisher’s Weekly

“You don’t have to know a Stradivarius from a Guarneri to be amazed and delighted by Paul Adam’s new mystery, The Rainaldi Quartet. Adam makes everything about violins – the people who create them, play them, collect them, fake them, kill for them – as natural as breathing” – Chicago Tribune

To Karl Alberg a small town on Canada’s “Sunshine Coast” looks like the perfect place to soothe a psyche that’s been battered by too much big-city police work. Bees buzz among the roses, and the local librarian is attractive, intriguing, and unattached. Perhaps he has at last come in from the cold. But sunny towns can conceal a lot of secrets–some of them bleak enough to make a man yearn for some nice straightforward urban crime.

In 1986 The Suspect beat out titles by Ruth Rendell and Jonathan Kellerman to become the first Canadian novel to win an Edgar award. It went on to become a great cult favorite among mystery fans, who prized its delicately etched sense of melancholy and intriguing character studies of the cop, his quarry, and the enigmatic librarian who proves an unlikely bridge between the two.

Especially recommended for fans of Scandinavian mysteries with which it shares a sense of chilly introspection.

“Every bit as good as the novels of P.D. James and Ruth Rendell”

– People

“A writer of exceptional talent…her novels are a joy” –Toronto Globe & Mail