Books

Set in present-day in the fictional town of Oakwood, Washington, Son explores what happens when John Tremaine, a recently widowed lawyer, finds out that Kyle, his troubled stepson, harbors a secret crush on his best friend’s girl, which may implicate him in her murder.

The local chief of police, Hank Garber, who rarely deals with anything more serious than a DUI, faces the toughest challenge of his career when the body of a popular high school student, Jennifer Swain, is found up on the mountain. Kyle responds with terrible grief, and his disturbing outburst at Jennifer’s memorial, witnessed by hundreds, calls into question his mental state, and perhaps, his culpability. Enter Dr Franklin Drury, a headline-seeking psychologist who appears out of nowhere in the grief-stricken town, to offer his services.

When Kyle’s mental state deteriorates under Drury’s care, Tremaine’s suspicions heighten, and he gets help from an ex-con, private eye, Paul Smith. Meanwhile, the cops think they have their perp: Bouchard, a permanently stoned vagrant whom they can place near the murder scene.

As Paul and Tremaine work to solve the puzzle of who killed Jennifer, they consider all possible suspects: Was it Chad, Jennifer’s too-cocky boyfriend? Is Bouchard the killer? And what about Drury, whose background, they discover, raises suspicions, but whose motivation remains elusive. When police find a second victim on the mountain, along with information from the dubious Dr Drury, they close in on whom they now consider their primary suspect: Kyle. Tremaine and Paul race against time to prove Kyle’s innocence, despite the overwhelming evidence that he’s not.

 

 

I’ve recently finished writing THE REDEMPTION, my gritty and suspenseful 77,000-word crime novel about a disgraced former police detective who desperately tries to catch vicious child kidnappers and regain the job and life she loved. This is the first in a series.

The story reflects every loving parent’s fear that a moment’s inattentiveness could result in the disappearance of their child. Added to that is the effort by the main character, Cass Woodward, to rehabilitate herself and regain her detective’s gold shield. Relegated to working as a security guard at the county zoo in Washington state, Cass, a 32-year-old former detective struggling to deal with her dark past, is convinced that Will Frasier has hidden the kidnapping of his six-year-old daughter, Melanie. Her suspicion is soon confirmed when she sees the family secretly enlisting the senior detective who ended her career.

Haunted by the guilt she feels about her role in the death of her little brother, Cass is determined to track down the kidnappers, especially when a second child is taken. The story has a dark beginning that gets darker as it progresses.