Most Popular Books by Peter Abrahams

Master of psychological suspense Peter Abrahams returns with an ingenious tale of an ordinary family that unknowingly invites the agent of their destruction into their own home. When Scott and Linda Gardner hire Julian Sawyer to tutor their troubled teenage son Brandon, he seems like the answer to a prayer. Capable and brilliant, Julian connects with Brandon in a way neither of his parents can. He also effortlessly helps Linda to salvage a troubled business deal and gives Scott expert advice on his tennis game. Only eleven-year old Ruby—funny, curious, devoted to Sherlock Holmes—has doubts about the stranger in their midst who has so quickly become like a member of the family. But even the observant Ruby is far from understanding Julian’s true designs on the Gardners. For Julian, the Gardners are like specimens in jars, creatures to be studied— and manipulated. Scott is a gambler with no notion of odds, festering in the shadow of his more successful brother. Linda is ambitious, hungry for the cultured stimulation Julian easily provides. Brandon is risking his future late at night in the town woods. And Ruby—well, she’s just a silly little girl. And in that miscalculation lies the Gardner family’s only possible salvation. In The Tutor, Peter Abrahams creates a living, breathing portrait of an American family, their town, their secrets, their dreams—and a portrait just as compelling of the menace they welcome into their home. It is his most chilling, suspenseful novel to date.

When a baseball star fails to bring victory to his team, Gil Renard, an outraged fan who has lost everything except his fanatic passion for baseball, decides to murder him. The novel follows the murderer, a knife salesman, as he infiltrates the world of the fallen hero to make things right. By the author of Pressure Drop.

"The Black Experience in the 20th Century is also the personal journey of Peter Abrahams. It is the odyssey of a young South African who worked for a time as a seaman in order to leave his homeland for wartime Britain and post-war France to become a writer; it is the story of his personal relationships with the Black literati of the day and his involvement in the pan-Africanist movement of the 1950s, which allows for his fascinating personal pen-portraits of men like George Padmore, W. E. B. Dubois, Julius Nyerere, Kwame Nkrumah, Richard Wright and Langston Hughes. It is how the journey takes him to the Caribbean island of Jamaica, where he and his wife, Daphne, and their three children find sanctuary from racial divisiveness at "Coyaba." Finally, it is about the author''s lifelong companionship with Daphne and how their multiracial union reflects a symbolic "one bloodedness" mirroring Abrahams'' own admirable sensibilities."--BOOK JACKET.

"My all-time favorite. Astonishing." (Stephen King) Down the Rabbit Hole is the first book in the Echo Falls mystery series by bestselling crime novelist Peter Abrahams. Perfect for middle school readers looking for a good mystery. Welcome to Echo Falls, home of a thousand secrets. In Down the Rabbit Hole, eighth grader Ingrid Levin-Hill is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or at least her shoes are. And getting them back will mean getting tangled up in a murder investigation as complicated as the mysteries solved by her idol, Sherlock Holmes. With soccer practice, schoolwork, and the lead role in her town''s production of Alice in Wonderland, Ingrid is swamped. But as things in Echo Falls keep getting curiouser and curiouser, Ingrid realizes she must solve the murder on her own—before it''s too late. "Deft use of literary allusions and ironic humor add further touches of class to a topnotch mystery," said School Library Journal. "Intriguing twists." Publishers Weekly agreed: "The fresh dialogue and believable small-town setting will tempt fans to visit Echo Falls again." The next book in this Edgar Award-nominated series in Behind the Curtain, followed by Into the Dark.

A husband hunts for the secrets behind his wife''s death in this ingenious new novel from the Edgar Award-nominated author who has Ra truly remarkable talent for writing psychological thrillers of enormous powerS ("Denver Post").

A woman must untangle a dark enigma that dates back to World War II in order to find her kidnapped son in this riveting international thriller from Peter Abrahams, aka Spencer Quinn, author of the Chet and Bernie Mysteries Rachel Monette arrives home to a scene of unspeakable violence: Her French-born husband, Dan, is dead—the victim of a savage stabbing—and her five-year-old son is missing. A neighbor claims she saw a rabbi taking Adam away. But there are no synagogues in Williamstown. The only clue is a letter Rachel finds in Dan''s safety deposit box. Written in 1942, it''s about the reassignment of three German soldiers to a place called Camp Siegfried in the supposedly unoccupied western part of North Africa. Convinced that the murder and abduction are related to a book Dan recently completed about German-occupied countries during World War II, Rachel travels to North Africa and then on to Israel, where a mass murderer hiding in plain sight is determined to keep the horrors of the past buried forever.

A young woman who hopes to give up her bartending job to become a successful writer, Ivy Seidel falls under the spell of Vance Harrow, convicted for a terrible crime, while teaching writing to inmates at a maximum security prison.

“Peter Abrahams is my favorite American suspense novelist.”—Stephen King “Mackie dreaded the mail.” From this simple beginning, Peter Abrahams opens the curtains on a mesmerizing world down on the Mexican border, a world of complex and passionate people whose ambitions will lead them on a relentless collision course, a desert world that rises to the mythic in Their Wildest Dreams. The suspense will grab you and not let go, the surprises will shock you, but in the end it will be the wonderful characters who linger in your mind. Characters like Mackie Larkin, a suburban mother desperate for money, who finds she can earn it as a stripper; Kevin Larkin, her ex-husband whose get-rich-quick schemes left her with a mountain of debt, and who now dreams up an even better one; Lianne, their beautiful, impulsive teenage daughter, for whom almost anything, even bank robbery, is possible; Jimmy Marz, the wrangler she loves, who gets a dangerous onetime offer that could take him to the life he’s always wanted; Buck Samsonov, the charismatic strip-club owner building a southwestern empire in the lawless style of a 19th-century robber baron; Clay Krupsha, a twenty-first-century captain of detectives in a border town where no crime is what it seems; and Nicholas Loeb, a struggling mystery writer whose encounter with an unstable muse entangles him in a web of true crime more mysterious than anything he imagined. Utterly original, multilayered, and marked by the gripping suspense, sharp wit, and fascinating psychological insights for which Peter Abrahams has been acclaimed, here is a major work—a riveting story of modern-day desperadoes living their wildest dreams.

The true story of a college professor who helped burng a ruthless cocaine kingpin to justice.

Roy Hill married the girl of his dreams, dotes on his eleven-year-old son, and is next in line for a big promotion in the Atlanta office of a global corporation. Then, almost imperceptibly at first, everything starts to unravel. He losing control of his life. When his best friend joins a Civil War reenactment group, spending his weekends in camps where the year is forever 1863, Roy finds the idea laughable . . . even though he is the descendent and namesake of a Confederate Civil War hero. But when he visits the regiment just to be polite, something unexpected happens, gradually opening Roy’s eyes to the secret of a distant conflict that never ended–and leading him down a path that grows more menacing at every turn. With his job disappearing in a way he could never have foreseen, his whole life slipping out of control, Roy falls deeper and deeper into the Rebel past. A strange and powerful idea takes hold: that his life went wrong long before he was born, in the fateful campaigns that preceded the burning of Atlanta. Among the men, a hard-core splinter group is formed–with Roy at its center. On an ancient battlefield, the once-clear lines between reenactment and reality begin to disappear. When his son is taken hostage is it real? When the old muskets fire will they still fire blanks? Or will a bloody history come stunningly to life? An extraordinary novel about the fate of men and women no longer in step with the rhythms of the modern world, marching back into Southern history to make things right, Last of the Dixie Heroes is Peter Abrahams’s most dazzlingly original work yet.

Nick Petrov was a world-famous private investigator -- until a brain trauma destroyed part of his memory and changed who he is forever. Now a killer is on the loose, looming up from a past that Nick can no longer remember.

QB of the varsity football team. Passing grades in all his classes. Dating the hottest—and smartest—girl at school. Summer job paying more than minimum wage. Things in Cody''s world seem to be going pretty well. Until, that is, his girlfriend, Clea, is sent off to boarding school across the country, and a torn ACL ends his high school football career. But bad things come in threes—or in Cody''s case, sixes and twelves—and the worst is yet to come. While limping through town one day, Cody sees a newspaper heading: "Local Girl Missing." Clea, now his ex, has disappeared from her boarding school in Vermont, and the only clue is a letter she sent to Cody the morning of her disappearance. With that as his guide, Cody sets out to find out what happened. Once in Vermont, he unearths the town''s secrets—and finds out that football isn''t the only thing he''s good at. Reality Check is another edge-of-your-seat suspense novel by the New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-nominated author of Down the Rabbit Hole.

Stephen King''s "favorite American suspense novelist" plunges a woman into secrets of the 1960s and ''70s as she races to save her daughter. Peter Abrahams (also known as Spencer Quinn, New York Times–bestselling author of the Chet and Bernie Mysteries) delivers a gripping thriller about a Los Angeles single mother caught up in a conspiracy with roots in 1969''s Woodstock Festival. Jessie Shapiro restores paintings for a living, but ever since her divorce from unfaithful musician Pat, she can barely make ends meet. One weekend, Pat fails to bring their ten-year-old daughter, Kate, home. When Jessie goes to his Venice Beach house, she hears a disturbing cut-off message on his answering machine and discovers strange foreign words written in big block letters on his kitchen blackboard. Then her life is threatened. The police are dragging their feet, so Jessie embarks on her own search for Kate. Her quest takes her across the country and back decades, from the drug haze of Woodstock to the lethal jungles of Vietnam to the highest echelons of Russian and American intelligence. The truth—more shocking than she ever imagined—may not set her free. But it could cost her everything.

“A perfect page-turner . . . Books this well written and involving don’t come along often. . . . Peter Abrahams is my favorite American suspense novelist.”—Stephen King An unfaithful wife. A cheating lover. A loyal friend. A jealous husband. In this stunning thriller, four lives hang in precarious balance—as a cunning killer prepares their roles in A Perfect Crime. Distraught by a failing marriage, Francie Cullingwood enters into a secret affair with charismatic radio psychologist Ned Demarco. But what seems like a refuge takes a decidedly dark turn. For when the liaison is discovered, a seething, enraged genius begins to construct the perfect, flawless murder, manipulating Francie, her lover, and her best friend like chess pieces in a lethal game. But even the most brilliant mind can make mistakes. And soon the intricate plan is spinning wildly out of control—in shocking, fatal directions. . . . Praise for A Perfect Crime “Abrahams gets the human dimensions just right. . . . Each stage of this perverse puzzle has been constructed with deadly artistry.”—The New York Times Book Review “A first-rate psychological thriller . . . a plot filled with Machiavellian maneuvers and subtle irony . . . Drawing the reader unrelentingly through the chain of events, this novel is a must-read.”—The Denver Post “Abrahams has written more than a crime story here. His prose is elegant by any literary standard. . . . Abrahams grips us so closely, line by line, making everything hyper-real.”—Los Angeles Times “A Perfect Crime is a perfect read—a novel of malice and retribution that crackles from page one like a live wire.”—New York Times bestselling author Michael Palmer

Presents five short stories about teens who stay up all night, written by award-winning authors.

The monster storm "Bernardine" did more than devastate the tiny Gulf Coast community of Belle Ville. It uncovered suppressed evidence that exonerates a man wrongly imprisoned for murder. Twenty years ago Nell Jarreau identified Alvin "Pirate" DuPree as the murderer who killed her boyfriend right in front of her—and she later went on to marry the detective, now the police chief, who made the arrest. She and Clay raised a daughter and had a happy life—but now Pirate is free, leaving Nell haunted by doubt, guilt, fear . . . and troubling hints that a rot may be festering at her own family''s core. For the sake of her sanity, her marriage, and the safety of those she loves, Nell must uncover the truth about a nightmare that will not end. But the search is leading her into twisting dark alleys she might never escape from . . . where a wild card ex-con waits in the shadows.

A chilling and explosive tale of revenge set in the Middle East from acclaimed suspense novelist Peter Abrahams, aka Spencer Quinn, author of the Chet and Bernie Mysteries After his unit is decimated in the Israeli war, Lieutenant Isaac Rehv returns to Haifa to find his family savagely murdered. Torn apart with grief and rage, he vows that his enemies—and the enemies of Israel—will pay. Months later, Rehv, who is a former literary scholar and professor of Arabic literature, has moved to America and is waiting tables at a local café in Manhattan. There, a chance encounter with a member of the Israeli resistance called Haganah and a botched assassination attempt will sow the seeds of a brilliantly orchestrated revenge plot. As Rehv prepares to unleash his secret weapon on an unsuspecting Islamic world, a terrorist watch group, led by a former CIA agent named Krebs, follows his every move. But Krebs may be too late to prevent the coming destruction.

A thrilling adventure set in the world of underwater diving from acclaimed suspense novelist Peter Abrahams, aka Spencer Quinn, author of the Chet and Bernie Mysteries Deciding on her thirty-ninth birthday that a baby is the best present she could give herself, single Manhattan public relations executive Nina Kitchener makes an appointment to undergo artificial insemination at the Human Fertility Institute. Nine months later, the nightmare begins. Just hours after she gives birth, someone kidnaps her infant son from the nursery. The police aren''t helping, the fertility institute has shut down, and Nina believes that the only way to find her baby is to learn the identity of the sperm donor. Nina''s hunt for answers leads her to the Bahamas and the rich, reclusive Standish family who funded the institute. But Nina isn''t the only one investigating them. Joining forces with divorced ex–Navy SEAL and deep-sea diver Nate Matthias, Nina is unprepared for the horrors they uncover. A long-buried secret that dates back to Nazi survivors of World War II is still deadly enough to threaten Nina''s life, her baby''s, and that of the mysterious man who''s protecting her.

In Echo Falls, secrets buried in the past don''t always stay there. In the third book in the Edgar Award–nominated and national bestselling Echo Falls series, Peter Abrahams''s talent for building suspense shines as Ingrid embarks on her most harrowing adventure yet. Perfect for middle schoolers looking for a good mystery. An idyllic day of snowshoeing on Grampy''s land with the sheriff''s son, Joey, turns out to be less than idyllic when thirteen-year-old super sleuth Ingrid Levin-Hill stumbles on a body lying in the snow. This discovery sends the town of Echo Falls into a tailspin in which secrets long hidden are revealed and Grampy gets sent to jail. While Ingrid works to clear Grampy''s name and uncover what really happened to the man in the snow, she discovers even more secrets she wishes she never knew. Just like the character Gretel, whom Ingid is playing in a local production of Hansel and Gretel, Ingrid must go deep into the darkness to find the truth. The Kliatt reviewer commented: "I’ve read the two previous Echo Falls mysteries featuring Ingrid (Down the Rabbit Hole and Behind the Curtain) and enjoyed them, but I think this one may be the best of all."