Frank Zafiro Books in Order

River City patrol officers hunt a violent robber while managing troubled relationships, departmental politics and public hostility. Stefan Kopriva, Katie MacLeod, Karl Winter and Thomas Chisolm bring different experiences to a pursuit that tests their ability to protect the city.

A six-year-old girl is abducted from a residential street in daylight, mobilizing River City's entire police department. Detectives follow the available evidence while patrol officers search the streets, racing to locate the child before the kidnapping becomes something worse.

A serial rapist's increasingly brutal attacks convince Detective John Tower that murder may soon follow. As investigative mistakes and narrow misses heighten the danger, Tower, Katie MacLeod and Thomas Chisolm confront personal fears while trying to stop him.

Fifteen River City stories follow officers, detectives, and criminals through theft, murder, and unexpected mysteries. Katie MacLeod, Finch and Elias, Paul Hiero, and Dominic Bracco confront cases and personal choices that reveal the city beyond its major investigations.

Fourteen River City stories explore lives caught between conscience, violence, and the need for redemption. Former officers, troubled families, and lovers face fractured relationships and difficult moral choices, extending the world of the novels into more personal encounters.

Seventeen short stories explore River City through its police officers and other troubled residents. A crime-scene cleaner, an off-duty cop, a fatalistic patrol officer and an Internal Affairs investigator face situations that expose frustration, sadness and the uncertainties of their work.

Russian gangster Valeriy pursues control of River City through carefully calculated violence and sacrifice. Rookie officer B. J. Carson and her colleagues must cooperate with a former local cop now working for the FBI to confront his growing criminal organization.

Sandy Banks is the last surviving member of a vigilante group of former police officers. As the operation collapses, betrayal, blackmail and a federal investigation close around him, forcing him to search for a way out without surrendering his remaining principles.

Disgraced former officer Stefan Kopriva reluctantly agrees to find a classmate's runaway teenage daughter. Investigating Kris Sinderling's disappearance forces him to contend with old injuries and the guilt over the mistake that ended his police career more than a decade earlier.

Preparing to retire, detective Jack McCrae agrees to help a young woman investigate a photograph of her mother and an unknown child. The search leads to an Oregon town controlled by a powerful family, where nobody welcomes questions about his possible daughter.

Estranged half-brothers Mick and Jerzy Sawyer learn of unrecovered diamonds from their dying father in prison. A former cop and a career criminal, they compete for the jewels and the attention of mysterious Ania while navigating Chicago's dangerous underworld.

Three border-town stories follow outsider cop Carl, his love Isabella, and resident John Calhoun through conflicts with local power. Justice, affection, race, and class blur together in a community where enforcing the law offers no simple moral answers.

Former cop Stefan Kopriva investigates a city councilman's apparent suicide for an unexpected client. The inquiry draws him into corrupt municipal politics and encounters with gangsters, contractors and police, while those protecting the truth threaten his freedom and his life.

Retired officer Thomas Chisolm is approached by Mai, a woman he could not protect during the Vietnam War. Her demand for justice sends him after the man responsible for her suffering, confronting guilt and an obligation that has endured for decades.

Ania Kozak arrives in Las Vegas hoping to hide with stolen diamonds and cash. Her involvement with poker champion Cord Needham and indebted former baseball player Casey Brunnell creates a dangerous contest in which money, secrets and survival become intertwined.

Undercover detective Gus MacIntyre infiltrates human trafficking while Bull Porter hunts the people who kidnapped his niece. Joining forces to rescue victims, they confront the moral boundaries their pursuit of justice has already blurred and the costs of going further.

Defense attorney Joel Harrity asks Stefan Kopriva to investigate whether a prospective client killed her husband. Evasive witnesses, misdirected police questions and threats from an unknown source obstruct his search for the truth behind the death of Harrity's friend.

A struggling mob organization gives hitmen Bricks and Cam separate lists of overdue targets, making them compete to keep their jobs. The sharp-tongued Bricks and eager, accident-prone Cam encounter increasingly unexpected problems while trying to complete their assignments.

Bricks and Cam attempt independent work after breaking with the Giordano family, but their new start turns dangerous. Cam is kidnapped and Bricks faces an old enemy, forcing both assassins to uncover who wants revenge while fighting to survive.

In an imagined 2028, a nationalist president tightening restrictions on freedom and immigration approaches a fourth term. Police officer Ryan Derrick and his senator brother Alexander confront the regime from different positions as personal tragedy and California's political crisis intensify.

Insurance recovery agent John Pearse pursues stolen crown jewels that resurface during a Chicago gang war. Polish mob enforcer Andros Krol is also hunting Ania for the diamonds and missing money, placing both men in a dangerous race against each other.

Florida fishing-charter partners Boyd Tomlin and Hicks Ledoux consider drug smuggling when dwindling business leaves them unable to pay their bills. Meeting sisters Ania and Karolyn adds romance to a risky plan that draws them into criminal violence.

Fleeing the East Coast, assassins Bricks and Cam stop in a rural Washington town and intervene against an abusive boyfriend. The encounter sparks a feud with the powerful Crawford family and its allies, turning a brief visit into a fight for survival.

As December 1999 ends, River City police prepare for potential Y2K disruption while investigating racist home invasions. A white supremacist gang plans to exploit the uncertainty, and officers must confront it despite internal investigations, grief and strains within the department.

Heroin addict Tim wants to spend time with his friend Ernie, but aggressive police and predatory dealers force him into danger. Pressured to become an informant, he sees few options until Ernie mentions a taco truck that also sells illegal guns.

Former cop Jake Stankovic expands his stolen-property operation into drugs, only to face a disastrous deal and a vengeful detective. A possible traitor in his crew and the return of the detective's ex-wife, Jake's former lover, complicate his attempt to recover.

Detective John Tower investigates a young woman's murder and suspects a killer with more victims. Meanwhile, the dead woman's father arrives from the criminal underworld seeking revenge, putting a forensic investigation and a violent private hunt on a collision course.

Boone hopes to earn full membership in the Iron Brotherhood motorcycle gang, but a routine intimidation job goes wrong. Drugs, personal loyalties and a dangerous relationship pull him deeper into the club as a death and rumors of an informant threaten everyone.

A school shooting plunges River City into crisis as students and teachers struggle to survive and police attempt a rescue. In the aftermath, officer Katie MacLeod and the wider community confront grief, blame and consequences that continue long after the immediate violence.

Spokane’s new Anti-Crime Team earns praise for swift arrests and seizures, but its success conceals dangerous agendas. Officers face competing loyalties and mounting suspicions, while Tyler Garrett and his pursuers maneuver through a department where trust can prove fatal.

Celebrated SWAT officer Tyler Garrett survives an ambush and becomes a community hero. When investigators discover troubling evidence about the man he killed, Garrett must find the second shooter as political pressure and suspicion threaten his carefully built reputation.

Federal investigators arrive in a Spokane police department damaged by scandal and officer deaths. Their scrutiny disrupts hidden agendas, forcing Tyler Garrett, department leaders, and his determined pursuers to confront secrets that could destroy careers or cost lives.

Budget cuts, public anger and stalled union negotiations destabilize River City's police department as a new chief takes command. Amid those distractions, rookie detective Katie MacLeod helps investigate a killer targeting vulnerable women, but progress on the case remains elusive.

Tyler Garrett returns to police work while Detective Wardell Clint remains determined to prove his corruption. New city hall scandals and a suspicious death draw officers and politicians into a struggle where divided loyalties threaten to expose deeper wrongdoing.

Thirteen stories range from River City and Texas to San Francisco and Roman Britain. Grifters, a struggling addict and a murderer share the collection with an Ania prequel and a title story about perseverance inspired by a misunderstood song lyric.

Veteran homicide detective Joseph Finch has faced countless dangerous doorways during his career. This graphic story brings him to a confrontation that tests him more deeply than an ordinary investigation, forcing professional duty against a painfully personal challenge.

Retired detective Jack McCrae mourns his mentor when the man's son brings him a cryptic letter containing a confession. Investigating an old conviction forces Mac to question his hero's conduct and decide what justice requires when the past cannot be undone.

Private investigator George Masaryk barely remembers a drunken conversation with businessman Andrew McDonough. When McDonough's wife later hires him to find her missing husband, Masaryk must untangle dangerous secrets surrounding a man who may have fled, been kidnapped or been killed.

Burglar Billie Jo Higgins supports herself and her addicted twin brother through theft. Entering the wrong house exposes a dangerous secret, transforming their precarious survival into a desperate effort to escape someone determined to silence her permanently.

Police officer Lee Salter carries on amid federal reforms following a departmental scandal. Teacher and activist Melody Weaver joins his graveyard shift to understand policing firsthand, bringing opposing perspectives together during a night shaped by the city’s unresolved tensions.

Newly assigned to Major Crimes, Katie MacLeod investigates two sexual assaults with very different obstacles. Sparse evidence and conflicting accounts complicate her work, while the cases awaken personal memories that threaten to overwhelm her pursuit of justice.

Detective Katie MacLeod hunts a burglar targeting elderly residents while handling a politically sensitive disappearance from five years earlier. Balancing immediate danger with buried secrets, she must discover what happened to the missing woman and who wants the truth hidden.

Former officer Stefan Kopriva’s hard-won stability is unsettled when the mother who abandoned him returns seeking reconciliation. His desire to trust her leads toward betrayal and murder, forcing an investigation that threatens the fragile peace he has rebuilt.

Spokane businessman Solomon Knight asks his estranged adult children to find their missing sister Lily. As they enter the drug world searching for her, conflicting loyalties and private secrets threaten the cooperation needed to bring her home safely.

Vigilante assassin Sandy Banks tries to return home after escaping his former life. A determined agent pursues him through the secrets of his past, while hidden forces threaten to destroy the freedom he has only briefly managed to grasp.

These crime stories follow police officers, private investigators, criminals, and ordinary people caught in unexpected trouble. Revenge, professional duty, familiar genre expectations, and changing policing practices shape encounters where small choices can carry surprising and dangerous consequences.

Detective Wardell Clint traces links between unsolved Spokane murders spanning fifty years. Retired chief Robert Baumgartner becomes an uncertain guide through generations of police and witnesses, as privilege and concealed wrongdoing threaten to keep the victims’ stories buried.

Stefan Kopriva searches for missing Laura Shelton amid conflicting claims about embezzlement and an abusive marriage. As witnesses offer incompatible pictures of her character, he must discover whom to believe and whether the woman he seeks is still alive.

New sergeant Katie MacLeod struggles to lead her graveyard-shift officers while a local celebrity faces a stalker. Protecting a prominent critic of the police adds pressure to routine patrol demands, testing her confidence and ability to keep everyone safe.

Covert assassin Sandy Banks wants to retire as his body and conscience deteriorate. A mission against a cartel lieutenant goes wrong, and his refusal to follow protocol makes him a target of both his enemies and his own handlers.

Private investigator Stanley Melvin accepts a background check on a neighbor’s former boyfriend, expecting routine work. His friend Rudy recognizes familiar detective-story dangers, and a mysterious burglary draws Stanley toward a case far more personal than he anticipated.

A wave of vehicle thefts forces Sergeant Katie MacLeod to build a plainclothes anti-crime unit. Her team discovers a larger operation behind the stolen cars, drawing them into dangerous nights where a single mistake could cost careers or lives.