Lt. Joe Novelli, Homicide

Joe Novelli accepted the position of Chief of Police and moved his family to the island town of Mont Fort, away from the high crime of Chicago. But where there are beautiful women on white beaches there are men who become obsessed with them. When a young girl ends up dead Novelli finds more than one obsession he has to deal with and one that will twist his investigation into a spiral nightmare.

When a small plane goes down just after take off, Joe Novelli is suspicious that pilot error may not have been a factor, but that the pilot and passenger may have been murdered. The problem is, no one else was around. So how could they have been murdered if they were the only ones on the plane?

Everyone loves a good horse race, but no one likes a cheat. And when horse trainer Jack Hill ends up hanging from the rafters of a stall, Homicide Lieutenant Joe Novelli has a few suspects. Jill HIll, a wife that's been cheated on plus doing her own running around and Tommy Esposito, owner of a stakes winning horse that's lost a big race due to Hill fixing the race, top his list.

When a 17-year old girl is found murdered in a church, Corpus Christi, Texas police are on it. Lt. Joe Novelli's step-son, an officer in the Marines, calls his dad. He's been accused of the murder. Making the trip to Texas, Joe makes a discovery that makes even himself uneasy, and it doesn't have anything to do with his step-son..

When a teenage girl is found dead in a cornfield, it's up to Lt. Joe Novelli to find the killer. But after being shot at the police station, his investigation looks to be in going cold, until Joe's friend Larry shows up. With Larry's help Joe starts working the case that will take him from a drug addicted mother, to a boyfriend whose father dislikes his son's choice in girlfriends.

Murder is tough enough without it being someone you know. Lt. Novelli's son had dated Alysia Tarr, now a third grade teacher whose body has been found in Lake Springfield. His investigation uncovers that she was also a tutor, and she was tutoring a high school football jock. But English wasn't the only thing she was tutoring.

What do you get with a minister that can't keep his hands off the women and a hot-looking secretary? A dead minister. Lt. Joe Novelli finds he doesn't have just a couple suspects, but a whole stadium full. But when the deacon from the same church ends up dead, there may be something more to the minister's murder than infidelity.

Murder can happen anywhere, including places that society believes to be sacred from evil. When Sheriff's Deputy Tom Zane is called to an accident that involves an Amish teenager. He quickly finds that the young man hasn't been hit by a pickup but has been shot. He calls in Lt. Novelli, who finds himself not only trying to find a killer, but fighting an Amish bureaucracy of elders.

The circus has come to town. Instead of laughter rising from the tent there's a single gun shot. A training session has gone terribly wrong. The blanks in the gun have been replaced with real bullets and Blondie the Orangutan has committed murder. Was it the assistant trainer, the ex-wife who owns the circus, or someone else who replaced the real bullets and framed the monkey?

Katherine's acquitted for the murder of her and ex-husband, police officer Ray Collins, daughter Catlin. The next morning she's shot in a hotel parking lot in front of two police officers, but no one sees the shooter. Lt, Joe Novelli's investigation of the murder reveals that murder isn't the only crime and the murder of one child becomes that of possibly three,

Having just moved to Springfield 6 months ago, Todd Sieck is found naked and murdered. How could the car salesman made anyone mad enough to kill him? Or was he in a steamy affair that went terribly wrong? According to everyone Lt. Novelli interviews everyone liked him. Well someone didn't like him because someone put three bullets in him. Bloody cat tracks by the family cat lead him to the killer.

Jessica Spain didn't come home after going to a movie with her friends. After interviewing Jessica's boyfriend, who says he took her home, Lt. Joe Novelli brings in a K-9 unit which tracks her to a neighbor's house. Taped up and found in a closet, Stan Shawl is arrested for abduction and rape. Shawl claims that it wasn't him but his twin brother Ed. Both men have the same DNA. Which one did it?

Chris Blaskovich has been murdered. Everyone says he was a good guy, he didn't have any enemies, although he and his wife were at odds. His wife has the perfect alibi, she was out of town. But everything points to her being involved in his murder. It will take some inventive police work to catch this killer.

Margie Portman and her daughter, Tisha are found murdered. Tisha's best friend, Cheryl has been sexually assaulted and stabbed but she's still alive. Having returned from a Horrorcore concert, Lt. Joe Novelli has to determine if someone from the concert had anything to do with the murders or if it was someone closer to the victims. It's a twist that even will surprise Novelli.

Detective Gregg Sweet is found with a bullet in his head, assassin style. The newest detective on the department had found him a new girlfriend, Susan Bolin. But while his Rolls Royce affair of diamonds and money was spinning in his head, Susan wasn't free from a rich husband, who may not have been as thrill over her new love as she was.

Lt. Novelli's been shot. The only clue is the name of a woman named Shirley. But who is this Shirley? With no prints on the stolen car that was used in the shooting and no weapon, things are looking bleak. Luckily a news team was on the scene when the shooting occurred. But when a fire results in the death of two people, and the same news team is on the scene there may be more to it than luck.