Fiction
Horse of a Different Killer
Jessie Cameron, workaholic veterinarian at Riverview Park Thoroughbred Racetrack in northern West Virginia suspects that the tragic death of her mentor and predecessor wasn’t quite the accident that everyone keeps telling her it was. Doc Lewis died under the hoofs of one of his equine patients during an early morning emergency call that no one seems to have placed. And when Jessie discovers the horse in question has been given a drug that it has a history of reacting badly to, she knows this was murder. Her digging into the events surrounding that night uncovers unexpected dirt on Doc and more suspects and motives than she bargained for. Her life is threatened, her home and office broken into and ransacked. When her prime suspect turns up dead with her fingerprints all over the murder weapon, she knows she must find the killer before she loses her home, her job and, very possibly, her life.
Short Fiction
In “A Signature in Blood” rural police chief Pete Adams and deputy coroner Zoe Chambers must track down the murderer of a longtime township resident by solving the mystery of a strange symbol that keeps appearing at various crime scenes and is found carved in the victim’s flesh.
“A Signature in Blood” was a 2007 Derringer Award Finalist
and is available online in the Winter 2006 issue of Mysterical-E
(http://www.mystericale.com/index.php?issue=064&body=story&file=signature_in_blood.htm)
In “Sanctuary” Grace, a young homeless woman witnesses the brutal murder of Crazy Joe, a fellow street person. With the killers on her heels, Grace seeks sanctuary at a local church where she is taken in by the boyish reverend and his crotchety assistant. Grace soon learns that neither of her protectors is what they appear to be and only an act of desperate daring can save her life and bring the killers to justice.
“Sanctuary” was a finalist in Spinetingler Magazine’s
cozy-noir contest. Read it in their Winter 2006 issue.
(http://www.spinetinglermag.com/winter2006story4.htm)