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Now available for all eReaders!
All eBook covers by Robyn Hyzy
Playing With MatchesDead Ringer
Deadly Interest
Deadly Blessings
Artistic License
By N.C. Hyzy -- Julie's less cozy pseudonym
Playing with Matches
Available for Kindle hereASIN: B004O0VAP6
As a female PI in Chicago, Riley Drake doesn't get the respect she deserves. Why should she? Right now her only client is PS Consultants, a high-class matchmaking enterprise, for whom she runs discreet background checks.
But then Riley is hired by billionaire John Stratton who is desperate to resume dating and make his own love connection. The handsome widower would be quite the catch—if it weren't for the fact that he probably murdered his wife.
Stratton’s woes are only part of Riley’s problems. Other clients—a TV celebrity with sexual-perception issues, a Trump-like entrepreneur with an embarrassing secret, and a worshipful drug-addict trying to go straight—keep her running through the streets of Chicago, ready to take down anyone who gets in her way.
Riley is determined to discover all their truths, even though she knows that playing with matches means you sometimes get burnt.
Dead Ringer:Five Star
November, 2008
ISBN-10: 1594147132
ISBN-13: 978-1594147135
Winner 2009 Lovey Award for Best Suspense
a collaborative novel with author Michael A. Black
Private eye Ron Shade and news reporter Alex St. James nearly ran into each other in the final chapters of their respective adventures, A Final Judgment and Deadly Interest. Little did they know that their chance encounter would place them on a future collision course.
Now, in Dead Ringer, their first adventure together, Shade is looking for Bob Bayless, a dead-and-buried executive who was recently spotted playing blackjack in Vegas, while Alex fights off the attentions of a creepy mortician who’s a little too eager to show Alex his backroom moves.
Although it seems their two cases couldn’t be further apart, clues -- and bodies -- start adding up to tell a different tale. When Alex and Shade connect, the two find themselves involved in a combined case so convoluted that even the dead don’t stay buried for long.
In an all-out scramble to figure out who really is deceased, and who’s about to end up that way, Shade and Alex get on the fast track to Deadman’s Curve only to discover powerful individuals who will stop at nothing to keep their millions rolling in.
Stretching from the back alleys of Chicago to the Strip in Las Vegas, the mysterious puzzle keeps Shade and Alex guessing as everything comes together to reveal a sinister conspiracy of unspeakable evil. Everything is on the line as Shade and Alex race down those mean streets toward a climax where both their lives hang in the balance.
Deadly Interest:
Five StarHardcover, September, 2006
ISBN-10: 159414494X
ISBN-13: 978-1594144943
also available for Kindle
Winner of a Lovey Award, 2007
Returning home from an awards dinner where a former lover humiliated her before all her peers, Alex St. James discovers that one of her neighbors has been murdered. Drawn into the investigation, Alex uses her connections at Midwest Focus NewsMagazine to help the police find the killer but soon finds herself being stalked by a vicious ex-con.
Alex is juggling several personal matters as well: an extended visit from her handicapped sister; and love-life issues involving two attractive men, one of whom may just have the power to mend Alex's bruised ego.
After a key player in the investigation is murdered, Alex pushes harder and is soon poised to expose the truth. That is, until she finds herself alone with the killer, a formidable foe with a Deadly Interest in her future.
Reviews/Blurbs
"The fast-paced plot builds to a spine-chilling ending." -Publishers Weekly
"A nicely balanced combination of detective work and high-wire adventure." -Kirkus Reviews
Deadly Blessings:Five Star
Hardcover, June, 2005
ISBN:1-59414-290-4
Trade paperback, July, 2006
ISBN: 1-4104-0253-3
also available for Kindle
It's not often Alex St. James has such a tantalizing story fall into her lap, only to have it snatched away again. As news researcher at Midwest Focus Television in Chicago, she'd been set to interview a young Polish immigrant, pregnant by a Catholic priest.
When the young woman is found murdered and Alex tries to investigate, she makes some very powerful people in the Chicago Archdiocese uneasy. Suddenly Alex finds herself in the middle of a plot so sinister and far-reaching that the very next thing she might hear are her own Last Rites.
Reviews/Blurbs:
"[A] solid, entertaining mystery that proves her to be a promising talent with a gift for winning characters and involving plots... Deadly Blessings demonstrates substantial polish and poise for a second novel and is likely to appeal to readers of traditional mysteries as well as those who enjoy stories with a slightly harder edge." -Chicago Sun-Times
Artistic License:
Five StarHardcover, January, 2004
ISBN: 1-59414-112-6
Large print, June, 2004
ISBN: 0-7862-6549-3
Trade paperback, March 2005
ISBN: 1-4104-0223-1
also available for Kindle
Winner of a Love Is Murder Lovey Award, 2005
Two months ago Annie Callaghan made a mistake.
She thought she'd planned for every contingency. After five years in a bad marriage she filed for divorce, began to pursue her dreams of being a full-time artist, and quit her job to work for herself. Now, well on her way to a brand-new start with her fledgling mural painting business and her handsome new client, life finally holds promise again.
But, as she finds out, things are not always what they seem. An unexpected pregnancy, and the intrusion of her loser soon-to-be-ex-husband back into her world send things into a tailspin.
Reviews/Blurbs:
"Set in Chicago, Hyzy's smooth well-paced debut features a vulnerable but resilient heroine, among other credible and diverting characters... Romance and cozy fans will particularly go for this adroitly plotted tale." -Publishers Weekly
"A well-crafted narrative, gentle tension, and a feisty, earthbound heroine mark this refreshingly different mystery debut." -Library Journal
"This first-time author has begun her career with a promising start." -Mystery Ink