Lori Armstrong books in order

In this New York Times bestseller, twenty-six renowned thriller authors team up to create a first-rate serial novel—a collaboration that combines the skills of America’s greatest storytellers to produce a single gripping, spellbinding mystery.

Alexander McCall Smith. Sandra Brown. Faye Kellerman. J.A. Jance. Jeffery Deaver. Kathy Reichs. Lisa Scottoline. Jeff Lindsay. These are only a handful of the names that make up the all-star lineup of authors behind No Rest for the Dead, a tale of vengeance, greed, and love that flows seamlessly, in the words of David Baldacci, “as it passes from one creator’s mind to the next.”

When Christopher Thomas, a ruthless curator at San Francisco’s McFall Art Museum, is murdered and his decaying body is found in an iron maiden in a Berlin museum, his wife, Rosemary, is the primary suspect, and she is tried, convicted, and executed. Ten years later, Jon Nunn, the detective who cracked the case, is convinced that the wrong person was put to death. In the years since the case was closed, he’s discovered a web of deceit and betrayal surrounding the Thomases that could implicate any number of people in the crime.

With the help of the dead woman’s friend, he plans to gather everyone who was there the night Christopher died and finally uncover the truth, suspect by suspect. Solving this case may be Nunn’s last chance for redemption…but the shadowy forces behind Christopher’s death will stop at nothing to silence the past forever.

In this Thriller Short, award-winning author Lori Armstrong’s protagonist, FBI special agent Mercy Gunderson, is hoping for a quiet date at the local casino. But getting a night off isn’t so easy when you’re trained to spot the unusual, like a thief prowling for wallets and purses. Unable to look away, Gunderson follows the thief outside for what she hopes will be a quick arrest, but it doesn’t turn out to be quite so simple…

Dead Flowers and Baited, a duo of Julie Collins novellas from two-time Shamus Award winning author Lori G Armstrong.

In Dead Flowers, cynical PI Julie Collins trails cheating lovers, which leads to questions about her relationship with Tony Martinez.

In Baited, it’s been a long, hot, summer for PI Julie Collins. With her partner Kevin off on assignment, she’s lured into taking a case involving a missing fisherman. Nothing about the man’s disappearance is as it seems. Although Julie is no stranger to the dark currents that churn below the surface, can she count on her friend Jimmer, and her lover Tony Martinez, to keep her from getting in too deep?

NB:This digital edition also includes two bonus short stories, Praying to the Porcelain God, originally published in the Who Died In Here? anthology in 2004, and the never before published short piece, It Won’t Hurt.

Mercy Gunderson is a straight shooter with a hard edge. On medical leave from the army, she returns home to South Dakota, which isn’t much safer for her than Iraq. Arriving just after the death of her father, it is up to Mercy to decide what to do with the family ranch and try to deal with her irresponsible sister and nephew. Feeling guilty that she didn’t make it home soon enough to see her father one last time, Mercy is suddenly pulled into the local community when the body of an Indian boy is found on her land. But nobody seems to be doing anything about it, especially not the local law enforcement. 

When tragedy strikes again, Mercy is ready to throw all her energy into her own investigation, and she’s out for revenge. As she digs up the truth behind the shocking crimes, Mercy uncovers dark and dangerous secrets and must race to stop a killer before everything she’s fought for is destroyed forever.

Former Black Ops army sniper Mercy Gunderson isn’t adjusting well to the laid-back rhythm of civilian life on her family’s ranch in South Dakota.

To fill her time, Mercy accepts a temporary bartending gig at a local watering hole. Yet her attempts to settle in back home are tested when Titan Oil, a Canadian company proposing to run an underground pipeline through Eagle River County, sends Jason Hawley, Mercy’s former army buddy, to the area to convince ranchers to get behind the project.

While local business owners support the pipeline, Hawley’s presence riles the landowners, and Mercy is torn. After ugly threats and multiple altercations escalate tensions in the county, Mercy discovers Hawley’s brutally mutilated body in the bar parking lot. When it appears Sheriff Dawson cares more about campaigning for reelection than investigating the case, Mercy vows to find Jason Hawley’s killer — even if she has to run against Dawson for sheriff to ensure justice is served.

But Mercy soon learns her former military pal had plenty of secrets. Her search for the truth brings unwanted exposure to the county’s dark side and risks deadly repercussions for the entire community

Torn between her duties to the FBI and her need to keep her loved ones safe, former black-ops army sniper Mercy Gunderson must unleash the cold, dark, merciless killer inside her and become the predator . . . rather than the prey.

Newly minted agent Mercy Gunderson is back and ready for action— unfortunately, she’s stuck doing paperwork in an overheated government office building. But she gets more than she bargained for when she’s thrown into her first FBI murder case, working with the tribal police on the Eagle River Reservation, where the victim is the teenage niece of the recently elected tribal president. When another gruesome killing occurs during the early stages of the investigation, Mercy and fellow FBI agent Shay Turnbull are at odds about whether the crimes are connected.

Due to job confidentiality, Mercy can’t discuss her misgivings about the baffling cases with her boyfriend, Eagle River County sheriff Mason Dawson, and the couple’s home on the ranch descends into chaos when Dawson’s eleven-year-old son Lex is sent to live with them. 

While Mercy struggles to find a balance, hidden political agendas and old family vendettas turn ugly, masking motives and causing a rift among the tribal police, the tribal council, and the FBI. Soon, however, Mercy realizes that the deranged killer is still at large—and is playing a dangerous game with his sights set on Mercy as his next victim.

Given the trainwreck my life has become, I’ve earned my cynical attitude. I’m trapped in a dead-end job at the Bear Butte County Sheriff’s Office—a position I took out of desperation after the brutal murder of my Lakota half-brother. Three years have passed, his case is cold, and my coping mechanisms—tequila, cigarettes and dubious men—no longer serve as excuses for my grief; they define who I am.

Welcome to my world—Julie Collins, harbinger of doom and a sucker for lost causes.

So when the body of a sixteen-year-old white girl surfaces and the death details are alarmingly similar to my brother’s murder, Kevin Wells—my best pal and local PI—admits he’d been hired to find the missing kid before she turned up dead.

I’m roped into helping Kevin tie up loose ends regarding the girl’s disappearance…and that’s when things begin to unravel. Lies are revealed. Bullets start flying. Yet nothing—not even death threats—will stop me from digging for the truth and finding the justice for this girl that my brother was denied.

But the killer is willing to kill again to make sure these secrets stay buried. And this time, I’m in the crosshairs.

A kid in trouble is my weakness. That’s why Tony Martinez, president of the Hombres motorcycle club, hires me to track down a five-year-old Native American girl who’s become a pawn in her parents’ custody dispute.

Simple, right? Find kid, collect fat fee, and celebrate my superior PI skills with the dangerously sexy MC overlord. Except…Martinez neglected to mention a few crucial details. Like the girl’s father is the foreman on the controversial new Indian casino under construction, and the girl’s mother works at a rival Deadwood gaming hall run by an East Coast crime family.

After bullets start whizzing at me, I’m in Martinez’s face, demanding answers. Turns out plenty of people are determined to stop the casino from opening, including competitors, local ranchers, and a Lakota holy group.

As the violence escalates and the bodies pile up, everything around me begins to tumble like a house of cards. My search for a missing girl puts me on the wrong side of tribal politics and at odds with everyone—Kevin, Martinez, and even my father.

In a fight for my life after I attract the killer’s attention, I realize no place is safe…not even hallowed ground.

It’s horrifying to watch someone die.

My partner and I witnessed a fatality during a routine surveillance case—a case that took a bizarre turn when we questioned the victim’s wife about the mysterious hole that had caused the accident. The widow admitted that hunters had discovered human remains and rather than alerting the authorities, she and her late husband just…reburied the bones. The out-of-sight –out-of-mind approach is never a smart option, particularly when it’s oh…illegal, and especially now that the bones in the hole have vanished.

Who was buried there? And how long ago?

Local, state and tribal authorities want answers. My overworked former boss at the Bear Butte County Sheriff’s office hires our PI agency to separate facts from speculation. I bury myself in the investigation because it leaves me little time to obsess about the screwed-up situation in my personal life—why Martinez asked me to go undercover in his strip club as a bartender…and why in the hell I agreed.

I never imagined this new case would cause total chaos in my world, creating new enemies, opening old wounds with my father, reviving disputes with my half-brother’s Lakota family, and generating dangerous employee rivalries.

But the information I uncover leads me back to my brother’s unsolved murder…and I finally come face to face with his killer.

The PI business is sluggish during the frigid winter months. When a young woman hires Wells/Collins Investigations to poke around at her grandfather’s assisted living facility, we expect a routine case. But my partner Kevin and I immediately spot major problems at the complex with lax security, unqualified healthcare personnel and a shady senior citizen volunteer agency.

Meanwhile, a blizzard traps me at the Collins ranch alone with my father, leaving me no escape from the biting cold and my bitter memories. After I return from snowbound hell, I learn that our client’s grandfather wandered off during the blizzard. Questions arise about who inherits the dead man’s sizeable estate, and Kevin and I fear we’ve been snowed.

As if that’s not enough to make my blood boil, a missing ranch hand’s body is unearthed on my dad’s land, forcing me to examine my family loyalty. And when Tony Martinez’s power struggles within the Hombres’ organization places us both in mortal danger, I question whether I’ve been blinded to the cold hard truths in my life by love or by hate.

As I plow through secrets and lies, my discovery chills me to the bone and I realize someone wants to put the past—and me—on ice permanently.

PI Julie Collins trails cheating lovers, which leads to questions about her relationship with Tony Martinez

A hobby turns deadly…

In the novella Baited, it’s been a long, hot, summer for PI Julie Collins. With her partner Kevin off on assignment, she’s lured into taking a case involving a missing fisherman. Nothing about the man’s disappearance is as it seems. Although Julie is no stranger to the dark currents that churn below the surface, can she count on her friend Jimmer, and her lover Tony Martinez, to keep her from getting in too deep?