Mitch Berger, a top film critic with a major New York newspaper at a surprisingly young age, has become almost a recluse since his wife died one year ago. He spends his time secluded in his apartment or in the dark recesses of a screening room. Although he continues to dazzle moviegoers and the film elite with his criticisms, his editor and good friend is alarmed about him. As a scheme to pull him out of the doldrums of his grief, she gives him a non-film assignment - to do a color story on the wealthy and social homeowners on Connecticut's Gold Coast. It takes some doing, but in the end Mitch agrees. He is fortunate to find a cottage to rent on Big Sister, the absolute top-of-the-line private island outside the town of Dorset. His landlady, Dolly, is pleasant and friendly, but some of the other inhabitants of this small piece of land, although too well bred to come right out and say it, are not happy to have Mitch, born of parents only one generation away from Eastern Europe and raised on the city's pavements, arrive in their back yard. But Dolly, whose husband has recently left her, needs the money, and at least she is more than gracious. The discovery of a body during a bout of optimistic gardening in Dolly's back yard brings on the other main player - Lieutenant Desiree Mitry, one of only three women on the Connecticut State Police major crimes squad, the youngest of the three, and the only black. A dedicated officer, she is the terror of everyone who doesn't really want to give a home to one of her stray cats. She is, as well, a closet artist and a complicated and beautiful woman, and she intrigues Mitch from the start.

A new resident of wealthy Dorset, Connecticut, New York film critic Mitch Berger is thrilled to make the acquaintance of famed American sculptor Hangtown Frye, a semi-recluse, but when Hangtown's daughter is found murdered, Mitch joins forces with his lover, Desiree Mitry, to investigate the homicide. Reprint.

It's the peak of the tourist season on the beautiful Connecticut gold coast. But this is no ordinary July for the picture-perfect village of Dorset-or for transplanted New York film critic Mitch Berger and his alluring love, Resident State Trooper Desiree Mitry. When famous, and combustible, movie star Tito Molino plunges to his death from a cliff just outside town, Des' investigation-along with a ravenous celebrity press corps and gawkers by the thousands-threatens to reveal secrets too terrible to imagine. But just when things seem to be at their worst, Mitch and Des' close friends are suddenly implicated in the case, and suspicion falls even on Mitch himself...

Attending a party at the replica site of a historic castle, New York film critic Mitch Berger and resident trooper Desiree Mitry find themselves trapped with other guests in the wake of an ice storm, a situation that turns deadly when the guests begin dying off. By the author of The Bright Silver Star. Reprint.

A storm is brewing in Dorset. Poochie Vickers, the local aristocrat, is becoming even more eccentric in her old age. She's taken up shoplifting and reckless driving but refuses to see a doctor. Her worrisome daughter, Claudia, is angling to take over the family fortune, which makes some of the would-be beneficiaries uneasy. Two of Dorset's biggest troublemakers are being released from prison. And the bad blood between these two families, rich on the one hand, swamp Yankee on the other, could come to a boiling point: Two young people from the families are dating, to no one's delight but their own. Someone is bound to snap, and someone does, resulting in the brutal murder of a harmless and homeless man who went about town collecting recyclables. While Des is trying to track down the murderer, she's also trying to wrap her head around the idea of marrying Mitch. When so many things are going wrong, loving someone seems like a big risk. Handler's fifth novel in this charming and edgy series displays his deftness in creating memorable, distinctive characters and for crafting uniquely entertaining mysteries.

Something has gone very wrong on bucolic Sour Cherry Lane. A straight-arrow high school student has started throwing wild sex parties. The distinguished history professor across the lane has gone missing. His estranged wife, a popular author of children’s books, is strung out on crystal meth. And the new man in her life is under surveillance by a joint federal and state drug task force. It’s not exactly a day in Yankee paradise for Desiree Mitry, the alluring resident trooper of Dorset, Connecticut. Especially when you throw in those unwelcome fainting spells she’s been having ever since she broke it off with pudgy New York film critic Mitch Berger and took up again with her ex-husband, U.S. Attorney Brandon Stokes. Mitch has moved on with his life, saying good-bye to Dorset and hello to a new high-profile television career. Not to mention a newly slimmed-down and styled self. Des is completely out of his system. Or so Mitch thinks. Des, meanwhile, is furious to discover that a major drug cartel has been operating in Dorset right under her nose. Matters escalate when one of those troubled Sour Cherry Lane residents turns up dead. Des pursues the case in her own way. The problem is that her way gets her in way too deep. And there’s only person who can possibly get her out. The question isn’t whether Mitch will ride to her rescue. The question is whether the two of them will live to tell about it. The newest in this solidly entertaining series promises more twists and turns for the likable odd couple, and an astounding, heart-pounding conclusion.

In this delightful new adventure featuring the mismatched crime-fighting duo of film critic Mitch Berger and Connecticut state trooper Des Mitry, Mitch?s New York City past and his Dorset present collide head on. Back when Mitch was a chubby thirteen-year-old living in Stuyvesant Town, Beth Breslauer, a lovely blond single mother, lived across the hall with her son, Kenny. These days, she?s a wealthy widow who owns a condominium in the Captain Chadwick House, the Dorset Historic District?s most exclusive condo complex. Kenny is engaged to marry Mitch?s yoga teacher, Kimberly Farrell. Kimberly?s parents are Beth?s neighbors. They are also social pariahs. Her father was one of the Wall Street power brokers responsible for the sub-prime home loan meltdown and her mother is praying that Kimberly?s elaborate engagement party will endear them to their lost friends. Meanwhile, Augie Donatelli, a retired police detective who manages the Captain Chadwick House, is positive he?s figured out the identity of the infamous Dorset Flasher, an elusive, ski-masked figure who has been terrorizing wealthy widows after dark. He also believes that Beth is the proud descendent of a long line of professional thieves. He demands that Des do something about it, but Des dismisses his charges as the wild rants of a lonely, bitter drunkard, which is rather unfortunate—-because when Augie turns up dead, Des is included in the round-up of suspects. That leaves it up to Mitch to find out what really happened, even though it means he?ll have to find out more about the people in his life than he ever wanted to. The Shimmering Blond Sister is David Handler?s most emotionally gripping book in the series yet.

This newest mystery featuring Mitch Berger and Connecticut State Trooper Des Mitry presents Des with her first genuine racially charged case in the historic New England village of Dorset, the gem of Connecticut’s Gold Coast. Tyrone “Da Beast” Grantham, the famously volatile NFL superstar linebacker, has just been suspended for “conduct detrimental to the integrity of and public confidence in the league.” When Tyrone and his entourage decide to spend his season in exile in bucolic Dorset—-much to the dismay of his early-to-bed, ultra-white neighbors—-Des is put on the spot. And when Tyrone’s eighteen-year-old sister-in-law, Kinitra, washes up on Mitch’s beach one morning, bloodied and barely alive, Des is on the case. Especially when it turns out that Kinitra is eight weeks pregnant. Good thing there’s nothing else serious going on in our heroes’ lives right now. Like, say, Mitch’s parents arriving from Florida at long last to meet the new woman of color in their nice Jewish boy’s life. The Blood Red Indian Summer makes a fine and entertaining addition to David Handler’s award-winning, critically-acclaimed series.

The newest adventure featuring the mismatched romantic crime-fighting duo of New York City film critic Mitch Berger and Connecticut State Resident Trooper Desiree Mitry presents Des with her first taste of Christmas in the historic New England village of Dorset. And what a taste it is. Three blizzards have blanketed the village in forty inches of snow. Bryce Peck, Mitch's blue-blooded neighbor out on Big Sister Island, has just been found dead of a drug overdose. Young Kylie Champlain has slammed her car head-on into an office building after she's caught trying to shoplift a pair of Ugg boots. And a grinch has taken to stealing the mail from Hank Merrill's postal route, which happens to be the main route through the historic district. Stealing the U.S. mail is a serious federal crime, but Des soon discovers that she's onto something much bigger: a black-market prescription drug gang with ties to organized crime. And now a fourth blizzard is on its way. And so is another murder. And, somehow, the man in her life has managed to land himself smack dab in the middle of the whole mess. Not to mention that he's in way over his head with Josie Cantro, the beautiful and treacherous life-coach who just may be responsible for it all. If Des doesn't act fast, this will truly be a Christmas to remember—-but for all of the wrong reasons. David Handler's ninth book in this original series is brimming with plenty of murder, mayhem, and holiday spirit.

The historic New England village of Dorset has actually elected a living, breathing woman as its First Selectman. And now she's about to undertake the Historic District's biggest public works project in a generation–the widening and re-grading of Dorset Street. The job has needed doing for ages but the previous First Selectman, Bob Paffin, always opposed it. So did a lot of Dorset's blue-blooded old guard. The long put-off dig uncovers a body buried underneath the pavement in front of the Congregational Church. It belongs to Lt. Lance Paffin, Bob Paffin's older brother, a dashing U.S. Navy flyer who went missing off his sailboat the night of the country club's spring dance more than forty years ago. Everyone had assumed he just left town. But now it's clear Lance has been under Dorset Street this whole time, and that he was murdered. Des and Mitch soon discover that there are deep, dark secrets surrounding Dorset's elite, and some very distinguished careers have been built on lies. Coal Black Asphalt Tomb is the tenth in David Handler's original and very funny Berger and Mitry mystery series featuring this engaging biracial couple.

Every year, the Gant family performs an annual ritual desecrating the tomb of Aurora Bing. The Gants have held a grudge against the legendary silent film star for almost eighty years, but for Sherm Gant and his son, things have become personal. Aurora's only grandchild, Hubie Swope, has shut down Sherm's notoriously rowdy beachfront bar, and refuses to allow The Pit to reopen until Shem undertakes expensive upgrades. This means war. And when The Pit catches fire and Hubie Swope's charred remains are found in the rubble, it also means murder. Who killed Hubie Swope? Crime-fighting duo Mitch and Des have no idea. Not only are Sherm and his son prime suspects, but so are the women in Hubie's life. To their surprise, Mitch and Des discover that Dorset's building inspector, a quiet widower who repaired cuckoo clocks in his little house on Lavender Lane, was secretly juggling four girlfriends at once. And then there's Gaylord Holland, a builder who had a beef of his own with Hubie. Dorset is in turmoil, and only New York City film critic Mitch Berger and Connecticut State Police Resident Trooper Des Mitry can put it back together.