|
"Seeing Red"
Coming from Highland Press
Two mystery short stories as part of anthology with authors Lori Avocato,
Chris Holmes, and Susan Sweet.
In "Redshirted," Homicide Detective
James T. Kirkland shows up for what looks like a slam dunk "death by
natural causes" case, and finds more than a heart attack as cause of
death.
(Unedited Excerpts)
The cloying odor of death wasn't
what bothered me as I signed the patrol officer's clipboard and ducked
under the yellow tape fastened across the door. It was seeing the name
Frank McCoy printed on the sheet. I'd been chasing down dead-end leads
on an ugly double-homicide for the last thirty-six hours, and I was not
in the mood for his damn humor. Still, if I didn't play the medical
examiner's game, I might never get out of here. I added my name under
his, braced myself and stepped into the apartment.
"What do we have?" I asked, knowing
exactly what I'd hear.
Frank raised his gaze from the
corpse, which lay face up on the carpet. He grinned, saying the same
thing he said every time he showed up at one of my homicides. "He's
dead, Jim."
In "Red Flagged," he does a favor
for his ex-wife and stumbles onto a murder scene.
"Call me when you've got a dead
body," I said, and hung up the phone. I'd finally managed a few hours of
shuteye, and wasn't going to function until I had a few more. On the
bright side, the asshole who'd murdered two people was now behind bars.
Cursing the idiot in Dispatch who'd punched my phone number instead of
someone on the Missing Persons Squad, I went back to sleep.
The next time the phone rang, I
debated throwing it across the room. Instead, I pulled a pillow over my
head. Homicide detectives might be on call twenty-four seven, but that
didn't mean the entire squad was. Let them call someone else. I was too
groggy to realize it was my land line, not my cell ringing until my
ex-wife's voice burrowed through the layers of fog and memory foam.
|
NOWHERE TO HIDE, coming July 16, 2010,
from
The Wild Rose Press*

The trouble with running away is
that you take yourself with you. After police officer Colleen McDonald
is injured in a case gone south and her partner dies, she leaves her job
and friends in Pine Hills, Oregon for a fresh start as a civilian in
Orlando. When a deputy sheriff comes to her door investigating a
possible missing person, she’s determined to get him out of her life by
beating him at his own game.
Jeffrey Walters is missing—or is
he? His stepdaughter insists he is. His aunt claims he’s simply out of
town on business. His former business partner knows nothing. There’s a
stranger living in his guesthouse.
To Deputy Sheriff
Graham Harrigan, finding Jeffrey might be his ticket to a permanent slot
in the Criminal Investigations Division. He’s determined to prove he’s
worthy of the promotion despite an unearned reputation passed down by an
unsavory training partner. The attractive woman living in Jeffrey’s
guesthouse complicates matters. Their rivalry becomes a partnership that
stretches the boundaries of a professional relationship.
Coming in 2011 from Five Star Expressions:
WHERE DANGER HIDES
Hiding behind the public façade of a private investigation
firm–Blackthorne, Incorporated–are a band of elite covert operatives.
Dalton (just Dalton—nobody dares call him Ambrose), is one of
Blackthorne's best. A charming Texan, he prides himself on blending in,
and there's no one he can't scam. But his obsession with putting a
Colombian drug lord out of the picture threatens to endanger his life
and the lives of his team. When Dalton nearly blows a simple undercover
assignment at a fundraising gala, it convinces his boss to tether him to
a dog-and-pony-show case at a halfway house. Instead, Dalton finds
death, drugs, and danger.
Street-smart
Miri Chambers wants nothing more than to help everyone at the Galloway
House shelter lead new and productive lives, but residents are
disappearing without a trace. An unexpected meeting with Dalton at a
gala turns into an assignment for him, but Miri doesn't think he’s
taking the job seriously. Trust doesn't come easy to Miri. When the
situation escalates into a combat zone, can she trust Dalton with her
life … and her heart?
|