Crime & Mystery Books

Micky Knight, a bayou-bred and out-of-the-closet New Orleans private investigator, takes on the cases of a widowed mother looking for her daughter and a tough gay boy hunting for his biological mother. When a young woman patient is murdered at Dr. Cordelia James's clinic, it seems to be just a bizarre coincidence. But when another woman, also a patient, is murdered, these events reveal the frightening possibility that the crimes are more than just random chances. Even more alarming, the killer seems to know too much about the victims. As the killer circles ever closer to Micky--and the lost daughter she is trying to find--the coincidences become a grisly reality: the one characteristic all the victims share is that they dare to love other women. Reprint

It is fall in the steamy underworld of New Orleans, the seasons are changing, and so is tough detective Micky Knight's life. Micky takes on the case of the daughter of a friend, who is believed to be sexually abused, not knowing that the investigation will lead her on a dangerous sexual odyssey. In Cissy's sleepless nights, Micky sees echoes of her own past, and she becomes caught up in a world where young girls are treated as commodities. While doing battle with seedy thugs and struggling to hold on to her rocky relationship with Dr. Cordelia James, Micky travels between the uptown opulence of the Sans Parel Club, one of New Orleans's exclusive private clubs, and a tawdry hole of a bar near the Desire Projects. Evil exists in both places, and the mystery culminates where law and desire intersect. Reprint

The Lambda Literary Award winning Third Micky Knight Mystery.

Micky Knight, a hard-hitting, tough-talking dyke detective, has been hired to provide security for a party at an old country mansion. It should be easy--a perfect spring evening, mild weather, and women everywhere. Suddenly another woman shows up--brutally murdered, left to die in the surrounding woods. The police find a prime suspect when the body of yet another victim is found in the clinic of Dr. Cordelia James, a woman whom Micky has a very personal reason to defend. Micky struggles against demons, past and present, in her death-defying search for the murderer. (reprint)

In the detective business, the ordinary can quickly become deadly.

When private investigator Yoshi Yakamota and the Blind Eye Detective Agency are hired to find a woman's missing sister, the assignment seems fairly mundane. Then two teens fall to their death from a rocky oceanside cliff in what appears to be a tragic accident. Although the events seem unrelated, they have one thing in common: the controversial Pioneer Institute, a residential ex-gay youth program. Will sending a Blind Eye team member undercover reveal what's behind the school's terrible safety record, or will it just put the spy in harm's way?

Why can't Teague Richfield and the love of her life, psychic astrologer Callie Rivers, get away together without the otherworld following them?

Teague and basset hound Elmo head for Sedona and the sensual arms of Callie Rivers, but their romantic reunion is interrupted by unearthly forces and a dangerous journey into the metaphysical realm. A provocative female shaman from Callie's past involves the duo in shape-shifting, disembodied attacks, the murders of Native American women, and a spiritual battle that takes place on a level even higher than the mystical red rocks of Sedona.

The Four Corners is the perfect place for people escaping from something, and Sheriff's Detective Jude Devine is no exception. But Jude can't afford to dwell on her past—she has too much to think about in the present.

Local benefactor and reclusive millionaire Fabian Maulle has been found murdered. The Aryan Sunrise Stormtroopers are planning a ricin attack on the Telluride Film Festival. The feds have hit town and the sheriff wants Jude to liaise with Aidan Hill, the Special Agent in Charge. But Hill is a straight arrow who thinks Jude is a slacker. Their working relationship is only made worse by a mutual lust neither is willing to acknowledge. Jude is also losing sleep over a friend, Sandy Lonewolf Lane. Sandy, a former paratrooper, is stalked by her past. She's called the Four Corners home since the suicide of her lover, whose son was killed in Iraq. Sandy is planning to assassinate the vice president of the United States, and her determination to carry out her mission, and Jude's to stop her, draws the two women into a lethal game of cat and mouse.

If all that weren't enough, Jude faces a personal dilemma when Dr. Mercy Westmoreland's marriage to actress Elspeth Harwood gets shaky, and Mercy comes looking for consolation.

Book Three in the Jude Devine Mystery Series

The camera doesn't lie, but sometimes it captures a story worth killing for.

When Jeff Conant, the new executive director of San Francisco's Frameline Film Festival, takes a header off the Golden Gate Bridge, he is considered just another statistic—one of the thousands who've leapt from the landmark to commit suicide. But Jeff was also a childhood friend of reporter Velvet Erickson, who refuses to accept the coroner's ruling. Although unconvinced, Yoshi Yakamota reluctantly agrees to investigate Jeff's death. Diving into the victim's life, the Blind Eye Detective Agency uncovers potential suspects, but no real indications of murder.

What did happen on the Golden Gate Bridge that night? Did an independent filmmaker inadvertently capture the event on camera? When a Blind Eye team member is attacked, it becomes painfully clear that someone has a secret worth killing for—and with Yoshi dangerously close to exposing it, they may strike again.

It should have been an average bust. Minimal trouble. Minimal backup.

When police detective Foster Everett witnesses the unspeakable, average becomes deadly. A cover-up ensues and Foster begins numbing herself with alcohol at a neighborhood bar. There she meets Riley Meideros, the one person strong enough to hear Foster's painful secret and not turn away. But like most secrets, Foster's refuse to stay hidden. And like even the most carefully built walls—walls that Riley effortlessly seems to breach—the barricades surrounding Foster soon begin to crumble. Fearing that she's put Riley in danger and fighting against the powerful attraction growing between them, Foster vows to uncover the truth. But someone is determined to keep the truth buried, even if it means silencing Foster and Riley permanently.

2nd Edition

The murdered body of lesbian publisher Rosemary Finney is found on a remote hiking path south of San Francisco. Local police of the wealthy Woodside enclave quickly focus on a prime suspect: Investigative Reporter Velvet Erickson. Velvet appeals to her friend and former lover—private eye Yoshi Yakamota, whose detective skills more than make up for her failing eyesight—for help. Yoshi dedicates the resources of her firm, Blind Eye Detective Agency, to proving her friend's innocence. But every time the investigators rule out one suspect, another takes their place. What has Rosemary Finney done to make so many enemies? And which one did it?

Stellium in Scorpio, a Richfield & Rivers mystery, is the passionate reuniting of two powerful women on the glitzy Las Vegas Strip where everything is an illusion and love is a gamble.

L.A. screenwriter Teague Richfield is headed for the Desert Star Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, laser-focused on her hot reunion with Callie Rivers, the gorgeous, psychic astrologer who's had their relationship on planetary pause. But Callie is intent on discovering why a young Vegas showgirl is on the ghoul pool list; and who's behind the hotel's darkest secrets. The casino proves to be a place where murderers and kidnappers are indistinguishable from theater performers and hotel staff, and where Callie and Teague ultimately become the targets of sexual blackmail.

2nd in the Richfield & Rivers Mystery Series

Sometimes the ties that bind can be deadly.

When Stephen Elliot ends up face down in his chocolate mousse at the Historical Society's annual dinner, Kate Shannon and Nikki Harris are swept up in another mystery, much to Kate's chagrin and Nikki's delight. Family ties run deep in the powerful Elliot family, who pull a lot of strings in the tiny town of Truro, and it's very possible that one of those snarled knots has led directly to murder. Meanwhile, Kate and Nikki have family threads of their own that become more complicated when Kate's grandmother unexpectedly returns from Florida, and Nikki's parents, out on the farm, start taking a sudden interest in the couple's unexpected romantic relationship. Can they sort out all these tangled strands before the killer cuts the lifeline that binds them together?

When toddler Corban Foley vanishes from his home in the dead of night and a goat's head left on the front lawn, most of Montezuma County turns out for the search. But nothing is at it seems with this case, and Detective Jude Devine soon finds herself caught up in a small-town soap opera whose players seem more interested in their fifteen minutes of fame than in the fate of little Corban.

With the media snapping at her heels, Jude can barely conduct the investigation let alone have a private life, not that it's going well. Jude never liked time-sharing Dr. Mercy Westmoreland with English actress Elspeth Harwood, and when Elspeth buys land locally, Jude has to make some choices. The unexpected arrival in town of Chastity Young and her niece Adeline adds a new complication to Jude's life when she finds herself drawn to Chastity who is far from her usual type.

Second in the Jude Devine Mystery Series.

If your best friend is your basset hound, you're overdue for a meaningful relationship. Except sometimes, working out the details can be murder...

Teague Richfield is a funny, jaded screenwriter plagued by creative self doubt. Callie Rivers is an optimistic, ethereal, drop-dead gorgeous psychic astrologer who believes in positive energy flow, cosmic predestination, reincarnation, and just about everything else Teague Richfield thinks is patently crazy, but is willing to try if it will get Callie into bed with her.

Combust the Sun is the first meeting of these two dynamic women who amidst the growing sexual tension of their explosive relationship, team up to find out who at Marathon Studios is literally cutting killer deals.

Prequel to the Justice Series. Michael Lassiter, a theoretical design executive, is about to wage war on the corporate battlefield. She hires JT Sloan, a brash internet security consultant, to protect her most important asset—her dreams and visions.

Sloan, a brilliant cyber-sleuth who steadfastly avoids emotional commitments after a disastrous betrayal, finds it increasingly difficult to think of Michael as just another client. When Michael is threatened by more than just financial ruin, Sloan risks her heart and dares to trust again.

Montezuma County Sheriff's detective Jude Devine doesn't face too many challenges based in remote Paradox Valley, where most of the crime involves hiker assaults, campsite thefts, and cattle rustling. However, when the body of a local teenager shows up with a stake through her heart, Jude finds herself leading an investigation no one wants to touch.

As Jude uncovers the truth about the murder and tries to save a young girl from being forced into a plural marriage, she must decide how much she is willing to risk to see justice done. Further complicating her choices is her torrid entanglement with the golden girl of Southwestern forensic pathology, Dr. Mercy Westmoreland.

Newly promoted Detective Lieutenant Rebecca Frye once again assembles her unorthodox team of lovers and friends to bring a deadly informant in the police department to justice.

Aided by JT Sloan, a cyber-sleuth with a personal score to settle, Rebecca soon discovers that the conspiracy extends far beyond the police department into a world where human life is only a commodity.

Pressured by her superiors, driven by the private need to avenge her murdered partner, and determined to succeed at any cost, she must put one officer's life at risk and her own heart on the line.

First in the Justice Series. One is a cop, sworn to protect and serve—one is a physician, sworn to heal. Together they become reluctant allies in the battle for justice. 

Special Crimes Unit investigator Detective Sergeant Rebecca Frye is attempting to solve a series of sexual assaults and running into dead ends at every turn. Finally, she has a break in the case—a witness—one person who may help her bring a madman to justice. But the witness is a victim herself and Rebecca must convince the injured woman's physician, Dr. Catherine Rawlings, to assist her, a task that brings each woman face-to-face with her own darkest fears. 

Amidst professional conflicts and a growing mutual attraction, the two women join in the battle to trap the perpetrator before he strikes again.