Free Fiction Monday: Unknown Baby Girl

A former LAPD homicide detective, Carolyn moved to Oregon to escape crime. Yet when she takes a job making houses energy efficient, she discovers a baby’s skeleton in a crawl space. She can’t ignore the forgotten bones; they speak to her. So, she uses her old skills to track down shocking family secrets, still reverberating from long, long ago. Gritty and powerful, “Unknown Baby Girl” […]

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Free Fiction Monday: Sob Sisters

Madison, Wisconsin, 1972—When Detective Hank Kaplan calls Valentina Wilson to a crime scene, she wonders why. She soon finds more questions than answers in a secret room belonging to a wealthy female philanthropist, whose brutal murder the police hastily cover up. Val’s search for the truth will take her from the rape hotline she runs to the shocking realization that the woman’s murder anchors a […]

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Free Fiction Monday: The Thrill of the Hunt

Her family called her Hilda, before the war, before the Great Wulf murdered them all with his mind. Now the war has ended, leaving Europe in ruin, and the remaining Nazis have scattered. Hilda hunts them, but really, she hunts him. And thanks to an old friend, she has tracked him to Argentina. She should kill him, but she has doubts. She won’t know if […]

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Free Fiction Monday: Phantom

Stabbings mar the Dixon Theater’s reputation. No one knows who committed them or why. And they only happen on nights where soloists play classical music. Nights when the piano won’t tune. Nights when victims and witnesses see shadows in every corner. Martin owned the theater when the Phantom spilled the first victim’s blood across the stage. Now, he plans to unmask the killer once and […]

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Free Fiction Monday: Death on D Street

D Street—the closest thing Hope’s Pass has to a red light district. Three whorehouses and a few independents to service the miners who survived the mines outside of town. When someone murders a prostitute, Will, the mayor, must fill in for the drunken sheriff and investigate the crime. Only the crime has deep roots—roots that will touch Will’s entire family and make him question everything […]

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Recommended Reading List: June, 2020

I spent much of the month working on the Holiday Spectacular. You can get last year’s Spectacular in a single ebook volume this month (July), because…Christmas in July! Seriously, you’ll enjoy it. The stories are wonderful. And so are the stories for 2020. I can’t wait to share them with you. A Kickstarter for the Spectacular will start in November, but you can subscribe early. […]

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Free Fiction Monday: What the Monster Saw

Everyone thinks of Kyle as the good-for-nothing only son of Jackson Worthington. But Kyle keeps his real nature hidden: from his father, from his classmates, from everyone. Until he discovers a body in an alley on the way home from school. The police can’t solve the crime, but Kyle can—unless his very wealthy and very powerful father stops him. “What the Monster Saw” by New […]

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Free Fiction Monday: The Secret Lives of Cats

Homer Ziff wanted to know how his outdoor cats spent their days, so he attached a tiny digital camera to their collars—and discovered a mystery in his own backyard. Winner of the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Choice Award for 2008, this Anthony-nominated story was one of the most talked about stories of the year. “The Secret Lives of Cats” by New York Times bestselling author Kristine […]

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Free Fiction Monday: Models

Kendall Dee disappears on her first day as a professional hairdresser at a New York Fashion Week runway show. When she turns up murdered, her friend Corry Lindstrom decides to find out what happened. Because Corry, a professional fashion photographer, got Kendall the job in the first place.  A job that put Kendall in a kind of danger no one expected. Chosen by the readers […]

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Free Fiction Monday: Jackie-O

Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis—former first lady, editor, mother, grandmother—lives a life of mystery. But she wants to solve a mystery of her own: who changed the world on November 22, 1963? Oswald? A group of conspirators? Originally written for a mystery anthology titled The First Lady Murders, “Jackie-O” explores the murder at the center of the former first lady’s existence, the murder of her husband, Jack. […]

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