A Byrns on the Homefront Mystery

Set in agricultural California in 1942, in the tumultuous weeks leading up to the internment of over 100,000 Japanese Americans. Max Byrns, a once gravely wounded NYPD homicide detective, has moved with his art restorer wife, Elizabeth, to peaceful seaside San Ignacio, hoping to put the trauma of a shootout-gone-wrong behind him. But soon enough he is caught up in a murder investigation with a mounting death toll and the frantic hunt for a spy for Japan responsible for the loss of hundreds of American lives. And the clock is ticking for Max in this rural tragedy, with the date of internment drawing ever closer.

An ex-Nazi on the run will do whatever it takes to keep his vicious past from being exposed in this chilling novel of suspense.

On the coast of Central America, an aging man sits down to pen his memoirs. He begins with his childhood in Vienna, just after World War I, when his family lived in respectable poverty and his greatest pleasure was being rocked to sleep in the lap of his beloved babysitter. It would be a sweet tale if the author could withhold what comes later… but he intends to tell every horrifying detail of the truth. He’s a war criminal, a veteran of the elite Nazi brigade known as the SS, and he’ll write proudly of every atrocity he can recall.

Distracting him from his work is inquisitive American journalist Kate O’Brien, who has come in search of a story. When Kate accidentally stumbles upon the old man’s pages, he has no choice but to act, kidnapping her and locking her in his basement. His latest crime threatening to expose him, the proud Nazi will come face to face with the horrors of his past and the blackness of his soul.

Impeccably researched and chillingly believable, The Edit is a truly unique novel of suspense written by J. Sydney Jones, author of Ruin Value, a groundbreaking mystery set in the shadow of the Nuremberg Trials. This time, Jones takes the reader into a truly horrifying place: deep within the mind of a Nazi.

A Mystery of Cold War Europe

Expat American journalist Sam Kramer is burned out: too many dead bodies, too many wars covered, too little meaning in it all. He’s got a dead-end job at the Daily European as the correspondent for Vienna, where nothing happens now that the Cold War is over. And that is exactly how Kramer likes it.

But his private neutral zone is shattered with news of the suicide of Reni Müller, a German left-wing firebrand and Kramer’s long-estranged ex-girlfriend. To his surprise, Kramer suddenly finds himself the executor of Reni’s literary estate-but the damning memoir named in her will is nowhere to be found. Tracking down the manuscript will lead Kramer to the unsettling truth of Reni’s death, drawing him back into the days of the Cold War and showing him the dark side of the woman he loved.

Vienna, 1900. Lawyer and private inquiries agent Karl Werthen is puzzling over the high-profile suicide of a city councilman—former client, next in line to Vienna’s powerful Mayor Karl Lueger, and the last man Werthen would think capable of suicide. Werthen, however, has little time to ponder, as he is summoned by wealthy industrialist Karl Wittgenstein (father of the future philosopher Ludwig) to find his oldest son, Hans, who has gone missing.

Werthen soon discovers the whereabouts of the musically-minded Hans, and the case appears to be solved. But appearances are deceiving, and a simple missing person’s case soon leads back to the councilman’s suicide. Werthen—once again ably assisted by his wife, Berthe, and real-life father of criminology, Dr. Hanns Gross—journeys into a sinister web of deceit and violence that threatens not only his life, but also the very heart of the city and the empire.

Set during the peak of Vienna’s cultural renaissance and featuring some of the city’s most colorful residents, including Gustav Mahler, Requiem in Vienna is perfect historical fiction – rich description, vivid characters, and a mystery that will leave readers guessing till the very last moment.

At first it seemed like a series of accidents plagued Vienna’s Court Opera. But after a singer is killed during rehearsals of a new production, the evidence suggests something much more dangerous. Someone is trying to murder the famed conductor and composer Gustav Mahler. Worse, Mahler might not be the first musical genius to be dispatched by this unknown killer.

Alma Schindler, one of Mahler’s many would-be mistresses, asks the lawyer and aspiring private investigator Karl Werthen to stop the attacks. With the help of his new wife, Berthe and his old friend, the ground-breaking criminologist Hans Gross, Werthen delves into Vienna’s rich society of musicians to discover the identity of the person who has targeted one of Austria’s best-known artists. Soon Werthen discovers that Mahler might not be the first musical genius to be dispatched by this unknown killer. With the recent deaths of Johann Strauss and Johannes Brahms, the investigators fear a madman is killing the great musicians of Vienna.

Fin-de-siecle Vienna comes to life in this colorful historical thriller featuring the artist Gustav Klimt

It’s the summer of 1898 and Austria is transfixed by a series of brutal murders. When renowned painter Gustav Klimt’s female model becomes the fifth victim, the artist is fingered as the culprit. Klimt’s lawyer, Werthen and his friend, the famed criminologist Inspector Gross must delve into a nationwide conspiracy in order to acquit the unusual and unpredictable artiste. With an unmatched knowledge of Vienna’s history, culture, and politics, J. Sydney Jones introduces a gripping new mystery series set in a cosmopolitan city at the height of its artistic and social importance.