How Long Should The Buildup Be In A Mystery Suspense Story Plot?

When Emma's sister vanishes, she's thrust into a deadly game of cat and mouse. A mysterious figure, hidden behind a mask, demands Emma play a twisted game of puzzles and clues to rescue her sister. With time running out, Emma must use her wits to unravel the mysteries and face the sinister forces behind the game. But as the stakes grow higher, Emma realizes the game is designed to test her limits, and the truth about her sister's disappearance may be more terrifying than she ever imagined. Will Emma solve the puzzles and save her sister, or will she become the game's next victim?

"He's gone, Elizabeth," her captain Charles Johnston tells her. Elizabeth blinks back her tears. Her face full of shock and disbelief. Her frozen stare interrupted by his words. "He left his badge." "There's no way," she thought. He wouldn't leave her like this. No warning, no phone call, no letter. She was more to him than that or at least so she thought. That conversation has plagued her for 3 years. For 3 long years, Detective Elizabeth Ryan tried to shut out him, to finally be able to move on. But just as she does, he abruptly returns seeking more than what either of them anticipated. Will Elizabeth be able to forgive him, or will the past be too much to swallow? What happens when life throws her too many twists to handle?

With her enemies in pre-civil war Virginia still seeking her death, Esmerelda is forced to return to the future only days after wedding Lance. Because it was necessary to fake her death in order to stop her enemies from following her to the future, her new husband, Lance, was forced to stay behind. He’d placed a magic box for them to communicate until he found a way to safely be with her beneath the floorboards of the house. Now, she must find it. A task that is easier said than done! “The Magic Box” is book two of the exciting paranormal-romance-mystery-thriller Esmerelda Sleuth Series

A series of past murders catch the attention of the police and the media. All the people who were killed were women, all of which had some sort of relationship with a well known and successful businessman named Asriel Parker. For some reason, the murders all point to him as the number one suspect and connection between them. The reasonable thing to do is to put him behind bars but there is one problem. "Everyone is innocent in the eyes of the law until proven guilty." There isn't a shred of evidence that actually pinpoints Asriel Parker as the culprit. With that statement in mind, Selena March, a good police officer and detective is sent undercover as his live-in Personal Assistant to dig up whatever information she can use to put the murderer behind bars. Selena has no idea what she signs up for but she knows for a fact that falling in love is not part of the whole 'undercover' mission

Slow Burn to Sin. Some men don’t fall — they burn. A collection of standalone stories where restraint meets temptation and loses every time. The bodyguard who swore he’d never touch his client. The rival CEOs who hate each other in boardrooms and can’t keep their hands off each other everywhere else. The best friend who’s spent years pretending he doesn’t want more. Each story is a slow build to the moment control finally snaps — forbidden wanting, tension that won’t quit, and men who cross every line they swore they wouldn’t. No rules survive the burn.

Summary: Inspector Thomas Bertrand, a methodical and respected police officer, is tasked with investigating a mysterious murder. The evidence seems to point to the assassin being a beautiful and young woman, Isabelle Dufresne. But as soon as he meets her, an irresistible attraction grows between them, a feeling that deeply unsettles him. The battle between his duty to justice and his growing emotions for Isabelle leads him into an intense inner struggle. As the investigation progresses, he discovers that nothing is as it seems and that dark forces are manipulating the truth. His heart and mind are in conflict, and the hidden truth could very well destroy him.