Bøger i A Delia Mariola Novel serien

A new Nissan plant is coming to the depressed Rust Belt town of Baxter, and Captain Delia Mariola has been busy cleaning up the crime-addled city ever since the deal was announced. But when the 15-year-old daughter of the lead bidder on the construction project-a wealthy out-of-towner-suddenly disappears, and it becomes clear that a professional kidnapping ring may be responsible, Delia realizes that the factory's influx of cash could bring with it an entirely new sort of danger, never before considered in this working class milieu.Though Elizabeth's abduction was well-planned and bearing the mark of an experienced team, her captors could not have anticipated the quick and clever brilliance of the exceptionally smart teen. From the trunk of the car where she is held, she soon devises a clever trick to get cryptic messages to those who love her back down the highway in Baxter. The only problem is that the messages might be too cryptic even for their recipients to decipher. If Delia has any hope of bringing the girl home unharmed, she'll have to crack the code and discover the meaning behind the message. And unless she does it fast, there may be nobody left to save...Tough, thrilling, and filled with memorable characters, The Hostage is a gritty mystery set in the same hardscrabble town as 2021's The Yards, which Kirkus praised as "a breathless suspenser that's also a painfully acute evocation of the wrong side of the tracks."

Police captain Delia Mariola is still struggling to drive the predatory drug dealers from the rustbelt town of Baxter, before the new Nissan plant owners lose faith in this forgotten corner of America. It doesn't help that a boomtown has grown up just outside of city limits?a wild west designed to feed every unsavory desire of the workers building the plant. And like vultures homing in on the weak, criminal gangs from the big cities have also been drawn to the boomtown, knowing how freely money will flow to those willing to supply drugs and women to these workers far from home, looking for comfort and distraction. With no police actively enforcing the rule of law in the unregulated town, the criminals have turned on each other as they try to claim control.In the midst of this drug war, a young prostitute's body turns up on the streets of Baxter, well within Delia's jurisdiction to investigate. Hoping this might be the case that allows her to finally be able to crack down on Boomtown, Delia is relentless in her pursuit of the killer and the group she believes is behind the criminal enterprises plaguing her streets. But Delia isn't the only person looking for the murderer. Two strangers have arrived in town, claiming to be the family of the deceased and possibly looking for a version of justice that has more to do with back hills vigilantism than the court of law. This complicates everything for Delia, who is unfairly made the target of criticism not only for the criminals running amuck in Boomtown, but also as a woman and lesbian in a small-town police force.Once again, A.F. Carter brings a host of unforgettable characters to life in this gritty crime novel, the most memorable being the town of Baxter itself.