The Mystery Shelf Welcome to a world of great mystery writing! These are not your typical hard boiled detective novels. While there is mayhem and murder, and solid police procedure, there is also romance and humor and all the other things that make any book a great read. There are also some good bargains.

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MURDER IN THE CHOIR $12.75 ($19.95 retail) A JAZZ PHILLIPS MYSTERY. When a famous black jazz musician is shot by a sniper in a rural Arkansas settlement, the sheriff calls Jazz Phillips, former head of the Arkansas CID. Yet tracking down the sniper is no easy job. As Jazz digs into the dark side of the victim's history, he finds himself a target of the man never seen, a professional killer who never leaves loose ends. 2005 USABookNews Mystery Finalist By Joel B. Reed. Autographed copy.

MURDER BY THE BOARD $12.75 ($16.95 retail) A JAZZ PHILLIPS MYSTERY. When an old friend calls in a favor, Jazz Phillips, former head of the Arkansas CID, agrees to help catch a cat thief. Known for breaking tough cases as a consultant to the FBI, Jazz doesn't take the case too seriously. Then a personal journal recovered from the thief outlines the most unusual series of murders Jazz has ever seen. Yet, Jazz is not certain a serial killer is at work. The journal is vague and the writer is unknown. Nor are the victims clearly identified. While there are details that match suspicious deaths in the area, the pattern does not fit the normal profile of a serial killer. Only when he digs deep into the past does Jazz discover he is not on the trail of not one murderer, but two, working as a team to extract revenge. One is a violent slasher, the other, a cold mastermind. By Joel B. Reed. Autographed copy.

MURDER IN THE KIRK $12.75 ($19.95 retail) A JAZZ PHILLIPS MYSTERY. Jazz Phillips is one of the top criminal investigators in the nation. His specialty is serial murder. Yet, when he agrees to teach a seminar for the Ft. Worth police, he has no idea he will be thrown onto a trail of death leading from California to New Hampshire. At first, the murder of an Episcopal bishop looks like a simple homicide. Nor is there lack of motive. Controversy marked the bishop's career and the investigation quickly leads to the dark side of the man. Yet, within minutes at the crime scene Jazz knows the case is not simple. A very intelligent psychopath is at work. However, some of the evidence suggests accidental homicide and the chief of police is anxious to close the case. Jazz decides to pursue it on his own and turns up more than twenty murders by the same assassin. What is more chilling is discovering the killer has proteges. By Joel B. Reed. Autographed copy.

MURDER WAS A BLAST $9.95 ($14.95 retail) When a bomb goes off in Portland, it looks like a mob hit. The victim is a well known underworld go-between. He sets up deals for death and it looks like he arranged the wrong fatal accident. So when Jazz Phillips, former head of the Arkansas state CID is called in, he wonders why. His specialty is tracking down serial killers. Then a second bomb explodes in Seattle, soon followed by another in San Francisco and a rash of explosions in LA and Phoenix. What ties these together is the chemical signature of the explosives, the unique way the bomber works, and the fact the targets are all criminals. When everything points to a single suspect, an assassin long dead, Jazz realizes he is on the trail of a copycat, a professional bomber who is now deteriorating mentally and killing for sport. By Joel B. Reed. Autographed copy. JUST OUT!   MURDER BY THE QUEEN $9.95 ($14.95 retail) Who is the Queen of Spades? Is it a woman or a man? And why does this stalker kill? The evidence makes no sense. The victims are slain first and then mutilated, and the way it is done varies. The only tie is a calling card, the queen of spades. Then DNA evidence turns up a startling result. The latest victim is also a serial killer tied to at least five brutal murders.When a mysterious package arrives pointing to five more serial killers, all dead, Jazz Phillips realizes he is dealing with a killer who knows more than the police. Yet, how does the killer get this information?Then a copycat strikes with three brutal slashings, leaving a queen of spades on each victim. To stop this second killer, Jazz makes a strange alliance and he finds himself working with a multiple killer to catch a serial killer. Doing this will lead him into a twilight zone where nothing is what it seems, and the alliance will cost him what he treasures most. By Joel B. Reed. Autographed copy.