New York Times Best-selling Thriller Author J. Carson Black

Author of Darkness on the Edge of Town; the first novel of the Laura Cardinal Series, and The Shop; the first Cyril Landry Thriller

Hailed by bestselling author T. Jefferson Parker as “a strong new voice in American crime fiction,” J. Carson Black writes both crime fiction, featuring homicide detective Laura Cardinal, and thrillers. The Laura Cardinal series was optioned for television by Sony Pictures Television, and later became a New York Times and USA Today bestseller. Her thriller, THE SHOP, became a #1 US Kindle Bestseller. She lives in Tucson, Arizona.

Latest Books

Superstitions

Raised by her father, cowgirl Billie Bahill grew up perfectly able to take over her father’s cattle business when the time came. But Billie has her own ideas about life, including the man she chooses to love. When her fiancé is lured by the Lost Dutchman Mine, Billie, pregnant with his child, rides into the rugged mountains after him.

Roadside Attraction

Cochise County probation officer Maggie O’Neil doesn’t believe her best probationer, Freddie Valenzuela, would skip town without his dog Blue. When Freddie is found dead in his pickup truck–lodged high up in a tree–and his girlfriend found dead besides, Maggie must figure out what is going on in her county, and find a way to stop it.

Cry Wolf

When pathological liar Sean Perrin is found dead at a canyon trailhead, he leaves behind a string of lies. From violent death in a sordid motel room to a high-end prostitution ring in Las Vegas, DPS Detective Laura Cardinal follows Sean’s trail across a landscape of broken dreams and convincing lies—until she confronts the true evil behind the mask.

Flight 12

A man waits in line to board Skyways Airlines Flight 12 to Rome. His eyes are bleak, his fists clenched. The woman behind him has a very bad feeling. … Months before, DPS detective Laura Cardinal investigates the death of a woman in Arizona, and her prime suspect will turn out to be the man on Flight 12.

Darkscope

When Chelsea McCord peers through the viewfinder of an old box camera, she sees children in gunny sack clothes–children from the 1920s. As the past superimposes itself on the present, Chelsea learns the secret of her own family’s dark legacy. Pitted against a supernatural force and a psychopathic killer, Chelsea must fight to save her life—and her sanity.

The Devil’s Hour

In 1997, the disappearance of three girls rocked Tucson, Arizona. Years later, one of those girls comes home—alive. Detective Laura Cardinal pieces together Micaela’s fragmented memories in hopes of learning the whereabouts of the other two children. But the killer isn’t through yet, and after the fiery death of someone close to her, Laura must face an implacable enemy.

https://www.jcarsonblack.com/novels/laura-cardinal-novels/ book cover

The Laura Cardinal Novels

A New York Times and USA Today Best Seller

For the first time in one volume, the three novels that introduced J. Carson Black’s remarkable Arizona DPS investigator, Laura Cardinal.

Darkness on the Edge of Town

Mobile devices are a conduit into a child’s life, not just for friends but for those who intend harm. When Laura Cardinal investigates the murder of a fourteen-year-old girl found in a town’s park bandshell, she knows immediately what she’s up against: a cunning sexual predator. But why is she plagued by the abduction of a schoolmate eighteen years earlier?