They say bad things come in threes. Usually, they don't mean murder. After several months (and a few murders), Dash is finally starting to feel at home in Hastings Rock. He's enjoying the quiet after the end of tourist season, he's comfortable at Hemlock House (the jury is still out on whether it's haunted), and most importantly, he has friends. Friends, unfortunately, who have a tendency not to take no for an answer. Which is how Dash finds himself at a cold-water surfing competition only a few days before Halloween—and, even worse, attending a costume party at the surf camp later that evening. When Dash stumbles across the body of a predatory local real estate developer, he's the only one who believes it's murder. Worse, Dash's friend Deputy Bobby (they're just friends, thank you very much) is on leave from the sheriff's office while he and his fiancé prepare for their move to Portland. But Dash is determined not to let a...

An embattled author. Fanatical parents. A son who can't stay out of trouble. It's the last one that'll probably kill him.When Emery Hazard gets drawn into a brawl at a monthly school board meeting, he knows he's in trouble; his husband, John-Henry Somerset, is chief of police, and they're already under enough scrutiny as they try to finalize their foster son's permanency plan.Hazard's actions, however, have an unexpected consequence: a woman shows up at his office the next day, and she wants to hire him to protect her mother. Loretta Ames is a famous—and famously troublesome—author, and a string of recent attempts on her life suggests that someone is determined to get rid of her. Under pressure from his assistant, Hazard takes the job, assuming that it will be two days of babysitting before Loretta returns to New York.Her murder changes everything. To find the killer, Hazard and Somers will enter a murky world of concerned...

On the Road: A young Cajun who’s never learned to stand up to his brother gets support and an extra push from the most unexpected of places. Horace Broussard knows he needs to learn how to say no to his brother, Herbert. His older, larger brother always seems to drag him into trouble. Except, the two times he’d gathered the courage, Herbert had explained why it was a bad idea... with his fists and feet. The first time had left him pissing blood for days. The second time had culminated in a broken wrist. Horace doesn’t say no to his brother anymore, which is how he ends up poaching gators in the swamp... again. When they spot a small pack of wolves running through the cypress trees, Herbert orders that they go after them, claiming a wolf pelt on his floor would be cool. Just like many of Herbert’s bad ideas, Horace ends up in hot water. They’re caught by the owners of the wolves—a fierce biker gang. Except, then something crazy happens. A huge African elephant grabs Horace in its trunk and carries him into the swamp. When other animals arrive and turn into men, he wonders if he’s hit his head and is hallucinating. Can the paranormal be real, and if so, how can he keep this revelation from his dominating brother? Reader Advisory: The first chapter of this tale overlaps with the last chapter in Pursuit by Camelback.

A collection of eight short stories themed on love, death and the boundaries between. Previously published and new unpublished stories exploring aspects of human dying from the murdered to the beautiful. The stories cover tragedy, horror, humor and poetry.A collection of eight short stories themed on love, death and the boundaries between. Previously published and new unpublished stories exploring aspects of human dying from the murdered to the beautiful. The stories cover tragedy, horror, humor and poetry. Some extracts: 'Art is not about harsh reality; it's about embellishment, hiding the truth. And eternity. Once painted a flower remains forever in bloom, a cornfield forever in sun. A woman's face forever beautiful.' 'He wasn't lying right. As he fell his right arm had twisted behind and caught underneath making him lop-sided. Sliding my surgical gloves on my hands I pulled his arms out so they spread in the usual position. Like Jesus on the cross the Standard had described a previous body, but it wasn't. These guys got nowhere near a cross. They were meat on the slab.''The boy stands and Jani's finger tightens on the trigger ready for the kill. But once upright he doesn't move, standing stock-still, arms by his sides. Jani once again trains the cross hairs on the face. The eyes are filled with defiance now, chin up. The boy slides his feet together then, slowly, lifts his arms out from his side, holds them wide and open, palms forward. A smile breaks on his face and he lifts closed eyes to the black sky. ''Daily I have visualized Cameron in front of me, tasted the saliva building in my mouth as my finger pulls the trigger. I watch him hit the ground, limbs splaying at odd angles, the plastic smile on his face, gone forever. They grab me, those around him, wrench the gun from my hand and wrestle me to the ground. I stay calm among the panic. My task done.''My name is Finn McIntyre. Finn, short for Finnegan. My eyes are different, the left one green, the right, a soft speckled brown, the color of walnut cake. From the age of twelve I read poetry and science journals and held a recorded IQ of 141 - the same as Benito Mussolini. Smart but weird, that's what kids at school used to say of me. Smart, but too goddamn weird. They only knew the half. ''When his world changed, Archie Middleman was sitting quietly on a garden bench thinking about petunias. The sun bathed his face, a breeze cooled his skin, a bird-feeder in the tree above swung gently under the force of a departing sparrow. A brief heaven for a weary gardener. As he looked up at the flight of the bird the summer sky exploded filling the air with bright vanilla light and a soft familiar two-word greeting fell like an axe through his skull.'

After a recent case with a treacherous client, North and Shaw are ready to go back to work building Borealis Investigations. They're also ready to go back to dodging their feelings for each other, with neither man ready to deal with the powerful emotions the Matty Fennmore case stirred up. Everything is getting back to normal when their secretary asks for help: her girlfriend's boss has gone missing.Shep Collins runs a halfway house for LGBTQ kids and is a prominent figure in St. Louis's gay community. When he disappears, however, dark truths begin to emerge about Shep's past: his string of failed relationships, a problem with disappearing money, and his work, years before, as one of the foremost proponents of conversion therapy.When Shep's body turns up at the halfway house, the search for a missing person becomes the search for a murderer.As North and Shaw probe for answers, they find that they are not the only ones who have come looking for the truth...

For the past four years, Danni Singer’s had a crush on Darren Jacobs. Good-looking, popular, and star catcher of the varsity baseball team, Darren has it all. When a car accident turns his world upside down, Danni finally has the chance to get to know Darren and an unlikely friendship is born. Will they be able to overcome impossible odds or will the obstacles of the accident keep them apart?He's the most popular guy in school and she's the biggest nobody. One night, and one mistake, will change both of their lives forever. For the last four years, Danni Singer’s had a crush on Darren Jacobs. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to know she exists. That’s because he’s one of the most popular guys in school, and Danni’s a nobody. That’s the way it is and the way it’ll probably stay. At least that’s what she thinks until a car accident suddenly changes everything. Darren loses his arm, leaving Danni to wonder if she could still have feelings for him. Determined to find out, and perhaps driven by a morbid sense of curiosity, Danni visits him in the hospital. It turns out his arm isn’t the only thing he’s lost. All of the friends Darren once had are no where to be found. Danni knows the pain of being an outcast all too well, and she reaches out to Darren. In the days and weeks that follow, their unlikely friendship blossoms in to an even more unlikely romance. Being in love is never easy, but for this pair it’s harder than most. Still struggling to accept the loss of his arm, Darren sometimes pushes her away and they end up fighting a lot. When she isn’t fighting with Darren, she’s dealing with the jealousy of her friends and the pressure of always trying to convince Darren his disability doesn’t change her feelings for him. This definitely isn’t what she imagined when she dreamed of dating Darren Jacobs. The truth is this is better. Despite the disagreements with Darren and the fights with her friends, Danni and Darren have a real love for one another. Sometimes things don’t work out the way you think they will, but they always work out!