First published 2015
Maddie Martin left Kansas behind for a fresh start as a sheriff's deputy in Mira Vista, California. She expected quiet small-town police work. Instead, she walks into a maze of secrets and violence that threatens to destroy everything she hoped to build. Women are disappearing without explanation. Stem-cell researchers operate outside normal boundaries. Her own family relationships strain under pressure she never anticipated. Then her ex-husband turns up dead, and Maddie becomes both investigator and suspect. She must navigate the treacherous politics of her new department while untangling connections between the missing women and the controversial research. Every lead pulls her deeper into danger. Every answer raises new questions about who she can trust. Maddie discovers that running away from her past in Kansas was easier than confronting the deadly present in California. The case forces her to examine not just the evidence, but her own choices and the price of starting over. In Mira Vista, the footprints she follows lead to places she never wanted to go.
Genres: suspense, mystery, crime, thriller
Vibes: dark, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, investigative-journalism
Setting: Kansas, Mira Vista, California
Period: contemporary
332 pages · Paperback · CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Content warnings: death, violence