Alice Lee is eighteen years-old when she takes off from her small Wisconsin town, drawn like a moth to the bright lights of New York City. With only six hundred dollars and a vintage Leica camera to her name, she has no idea what she wants to do with her life, only that she wants…
A man sails to Ranaig, an obscure, fictional Scottish island. He’s on a mission to kill. He’d been working out how to kill Wallace Lockhart for months, evolving and discarding plans one after the other till his researches had eventually led him to this. It matched his existing skills, it embraced elements of poetic justice,…
When I started writing space murder mysteries, I went to the master for inspiration: Agatha Christie. I didn’t read all of her books, but I read my favorites multiple times, trying to coax out every clue, red herring, and other uniquely-Christie nuggets she slipped in. Her books are obviously brilliant, but as I delved deeper,…
It’s been long enough that Detective Chief Inspector Hannah Scarlett no longer views her assignment to head Cumbria Constabulary’s Cold Case Review Team as a demotion from regular policing. Now, with the election of new Police and Crime Commissioner Kit Gleadall, Hannah has some hope that her overstretched team—about to be taxed further by the…
“The beauty and charm of the wilderness are his for the asking, for the edges of the wilderness lie close beside the beaten roads of the present travel.” —Theodore Roosevelt Twentymile is a November 19th, 2021, release from Latah Books, and was written by C. Matthew Smith. The novel is a thriller with a…
Austin attorney Leigh Larson is the lawyer of choice for “victims of sexual extortion, harassment, and online abuse.” Last Seen Alone could not be more topical as October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The plot lives up to the cliché, “ripped from the headlines,” since the news is flush with tragic stories of women killed…
Summer camp, boarding school, college—interesting places for many reasons, not least of which is the fact that they have as one of their founding principles the idea that you will, absolutely, leave them. In fact, leaving them is one of the main points. You will come to them as a stranger, bright, shiny, and anxious.…
Saturday, 10:00 a.m., seventeen hours after drop-off Whitney had been up for hours, and still hadn’t heard from Amelia. Last night was restful. Quiet. Peaceful. All the things Whitney had wanted it to be. Much needed. But this morning she was suffering from a serious case of mom guilt. She missed her daughter. Was anxious…
Chapter 1 Thursday, May 20 Tucson, Arizona MATT COSTA, HEAD OF the FBI’s new DC-based mobile response team had been in his old office in Tucson for the last month to investigate two possibly connected cases: the murder of college activist Emma Perez, and possible illegal toxic dumping by a copper refinery plant that was…
Twenty years ago The Russell House group home for girls; Fairfax County, Virginia Seven-year-old Nina sat cross-legged on the floor with the others, breathless with anticipation. Every girl at the home envied Angelica, who was spending her final night at Russell House. Angelica had been chosen. Eleven years old and willowy, with long coltish legs…
