Christopher Valen

A John Santana Novel

White Tombs (Mar-2008)
Bad Weeds Never Die (Sep-2011)
The Black Minute (Feb-2012)
Bone Shadows (Oct-2012)

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  White Tombs
  

  • Mar-2008
  • / Police Procedural
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  A John Santana Novel
  

  When a prominent leader of St. Paul’s close-knit Hispanic community is murdered, Detective John Santana promises the widow he will bring down the killer. Despite the snow and bitter cold, the case heats up quickly―suspects are killed before th...

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  Bad Weeds Never Die
  

  • Sep-2011
  • / Police Procedural
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  A John Santana Novel
  

  When a blood spattered Mercedes belonging to the daughter of a prominent psychologist is found abandoned, there are few clues to her whereabouts but a million dollars’ worth of reasons why someone might want her dead.

  Confronted with a lis...

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  The Black Minute
  

  • Feb-2012
  • / Police Procedural
  • 

  A John Santana Novel
  

  When the body of a young, Hmong woman is found on Harriet Island near the Mississippi River, it appears to be a simple case of murder and revenge. But what begins as a routine investigation soon becomes something far more sinister. Paired with a H...

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  Bone Shadows
  

  • Oct-2012
  • / Police Procedural
  • 

  A John Santana Novel
  

  The bodies of young men have been turning up in the Mississippi River for years, their deaths attributed to excessive drinking. But when an Iraq war vet suffering from PTSD is found in the river, St. Paul Homicide Detective John Santana must decid...

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  Death's Way
  

  • Mar-2014
  • / Mystery
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  The death of a beautiful escort in a downtown hotel room appears to be a case of autoerotic asphyxiation gone wrong. But when a woman brings her young daughter to the police department with a strange story about a similar death six years before, H...

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  All The Fields
  

  • Aug-2015
  • / Literary
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  Christopher Valen, award-winning author of the John Sanatana Mystery Series, presents a moving stand-alone novel.In a narrative that moves seamlessly between the present and the past, All The Fields is a powerful tale of love, loss, and redemption. S...

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  The Darkness Hunter
  

  • Sep-2015
  • / Mystery
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  When St. Paul Homicide Detective John Santana is assigned a cold case involving the murder of an environmental engineer, he begins to see connections to anothercase he once investigatedâ€"â€"the murder of a young Native American woman.

  But i...

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  Speak for the Dead
  

  • Oct-2017
  • / Police Procedural
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  The brutal murders of two young women in the caves along the Mississippi River pull St. Paul Homicide Detective John Santana into a case with all the telltale signs of a serial killer. Except that one of the victims doesn’t fit. Santana’s search ...

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  City of Stones
  

  • Sep-2019
  • / Historical Mystery
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  American troops are fighting the Communists in Korea. McCarthyism is on the rise. The Kefauver Commission is investigating organized crime. In the midst of this turbulent time, the murder of a MPD police officer and the two young Jewish men accuse...

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  The Price Of Life
  

  • Oct-2021
  • / Thriller
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  The death of a DEA agent pulls Santana off the cold case investigation of a young woman's murder and into the dark and lethal world of drug smuggling and sex-trafficking. Soon, he suspects there is a link between the two cases and a group of wealthy ...

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  No Way To Die
  

  • / Police Procedural
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  During the annual St. Paul Winter Carnival, Homicide Detective John Santana and his rookie partner, Gabriel Cruz, investigate a mysterious case of human remains unearthed after a snowstorm. As they delve deeper into the investigation, and more bones ...

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Award-Winning Books by Christopher Valen

Bone Shadows
2013 Midwest Book Award (MIPA) -- Mystery-Fiction