Part of Susan Wren, book 2
First published 2023
Susan Wren traded her big city police career for love, landing in Hampstead, Kansas, where livestock outnumber residents. A year after her partner's murder, she serves as the town's police chief. Professor Carena Egersund discovers trouble during a woodland walk when a stray dog leads her to a corpse floating in the creek. The victim, Lynnelle Hames, had recently claimed to have located her biological mother after years of searching. Susan suspects someone killed Lynnelle to prevent her from revealing family secrets. Carena's account contains inconsistencies that trouble Susan, despite the professor's mathematical precision in other matters. When investigators pull a second body from another watery burial site, Susan recognizes a pattern. The killer operates with calculated ruthlessness, and time works against her investigation. Susan must navigate small town dynamics and hidden relationships to identify the murderer before more victims surface.
Genres: suspense, mystery, crime, thriller
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, small-town-romance
Setting: Hampstead, Kansas
281 pages · Kindle Edition · Joffe Books