Lt. Joe Novelli, Homicide Series

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?

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 bikini clad young women on white beaches there are some men who lust after them and some that become obsessed with them. When a pretty young girl ends up dead on the beach it's up to Novelli to find her killer, but there's more obsessions than one he has to deal with and one of them that will twist his investigation into a spiral nightmare.

Faith, the seventeen year old daughter of a preacher, is found raped and strangled in the church. The suspect, Lt. Joe Novelli's step-son Mac. Joe makes the trip to Corpus Christi to find the truth behind the murder of Faith Wilkes, but the Texas Rangers have already been there and they're pretty sure they have their man. It's a case that Joe isn't liking the outcome of, but game of golf turns up some interesting facts.

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. It's fast paced murder and horse racing at it's best.

There are days when things don't go right, and Lt. Joe Novelli is having one of those days. A new female recruit calls his home causing problems with his wife, then right after he gets a case, he's shot at the police station. Being laid up is not solving the murder of a teenage girl found lying in a cornfield. With help from his friend Larry Morgan, Joe proceeds investigating the murder. It's a case like none he's ever had; a mother whose a drug addict, a boyfriend whose father is determined his son is not going to be involved with the victim, and a child born to the dead girl, whose whereabouts are unknown.

The Reverend Darrin Thorne is a minister who has a hard time keeping his hands to himself, and having a hot-looking secretary, Morocco Gunn doesn't help. Sometimes a man's occupation gets in the way of how he wants to live. When he ends up dead while playing golf with Lt. Joe Novelli, Joe finds he has a stadium full of suspects. But when the deacon, John Conn ends up dead as well, that puts a new outlook on things. Maybe the minister's infidelity with his secretary isn't the whole story. It's a double homicide that will lead to a suspect Joe never expected.

When Sheriff's Deputy Tom Zane is called to an accident regarding a pedestrian and a pickup in the country, he finds a young man lying in the road who has been shot. He calls springfield's Lt. Joe Novelli. As Novelli investigates the murder he hits a brick wall. The Amish Elders. To find the killer he butts head with the Amish bureaucracy which is use to taking care of their own problems and not relying on the English.

Murder is tough enough without it being someone you know. When Lt. Novelli is called out to Lake Springfield he right away recognizes the victim as a young woman that use to date his son in Mont Fort. But that was a few years ago, and now the young woman, Alysia Tarr has been found strangled. A third grade teacher, who was tutoring a high school football jock. Unfortunately, she was a woman full of lust, and English wasn't the only thing she was tutoring. There's a list of suspects that Joe has to weed out to figure out who would want her dead..

It's one o'clock in the morning when Lt, Joe Novelli gets the call. A homicide that involves his wife's high school friend Carol and her husband Todd Sieck. He finds Todd dead on the living room floor, naked.. Having just moved to Springfield six months ago, how could the car salesman had made someone mad enough to kill him. Or was he involved in a steamy affair that went terribly wrong? According to everyone Joe interviews, Todd was a great guy. Everyone liked him. Well someone didn't like him. Because someone put three bullets in him. Looking at crime scene photos and going back over the scene of the crime one thing strikes Joe in particular. Cat tracks. The family cat had tracked blood everywhere. But there's two plates sitting on the kitchen table. One of them has bloody cat tracks on it and the other one doesn't. It's a clue that will lead to a killer.

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, as someone has replaced the blanks in the gun with real bullets and Blondie the Orangutan has committed murder. It's a case like none other and Lt. Joe Novelli's called to the scene of the crime to figure out who had it for Blondie's trainer and is trying to frame her for the murder. Maybe it was the assistant trainer, the ex-wife who owns the circus, or someone else? Who ever it is, one thing's for certain. Blondie didn't act alone.

Katherine's acquitted for the murder of her and ex-husband, police officer Ray Collins, daughter Catlin. The next morning she's shot in the parking lot of the Springfield Inn in front of two police officers, but no one sees the shooter and a search of the area comes up empty, Lt. Joe Novelli investigates the murder of a woman who is despised in the town, blamed for a murder she was acquitted of. How many suspects can there be? But murder isn't the only crime that's been committed and the murder of one child becomes that of possibly three.

She's missing. Sixteen year-old 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 the missing teenager to a house in the neighborhood. The house is owned by Stan Shawl and his wife Margaret. Jessica's discovered, still alive, taped up in the bottom of a closet. When confronted with the girl's abduction, Shawl claims that it wasn't him but his twin brother, Ed. Both men have the same DNA, it's one brother's word against the others. But alibi's tell tales and DNA holds the key to a past murder.

The murder of Margie Portman and her daughter, Tisha is the worse Springfield P.D. has seen for a long time. 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 the violent music had anything to do with the murders and assault or if the few suspects he has are the guilty party. It's a twist that even surprises Novelli.

Detective Gregg Sweet is found with a bullet in his head. 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 thrilled over her new love as she was, or so it seemed.

Lieutenant Joe Novelli's been shot. The only clue his team has is the name of a woman named Shirley. But who is Shirley? With no prints on the stolen car that was used in the drive by shooting and no weapon, things are looking bleak in solving the case. Luckily for them a news team was on the scene when the shooting occurred. But when an apartment fire results in the death of two people, and that same news team is there to record the breaking news as the fire truck arrives there may be more to it than luck.