"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.

 

 

Coming in 2011 from Five Star Expressions: WHERE DANGER HIDES

Advance Praise for Where Danger Hides:

Terry Odell has penned anther action packed adventure with a hero to die for and heroine her hero is willing to die for.  A page turner for sure.
   Donna MacQuigg, author of The Dragon’s Secret 

Grabs you from word one!  A clever and sophisticated romantic suspense filled with story turns you don't  see coming and characters that jump right off the page.
   C. C. Harrison, award winning author of The Charmstone and Running From Strangers.

Terry Odell  ... weaves you into the lives of Miri Chambers and "Just" Dalton. Within the first few pages you're hooked and off on a heart-pounding ride of adventure, suspense, intrigue, and undeniable romance. WHERE DANGER HIDES is an adrenaline rush that will capture your heart.
   Mason Canyon


WHERE DANGER HIDES has it all:  ACTION, SUSPENSE, WIT, ROMANCE! Terry Odell scoops us up on page one and doesn't set us down until The End, treating us all to a deliciously-dangerous, captivating, intelligent literary ride, guaranteed to satisfy ... only until her next novel!"
   Joanne Sundell, author of The Quaker and the Confederate.

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?