A female Marine veteran with PTSD and an opioid addiction is hired by a wealthy man to find his missing daughter. However, she quickly finds herself in over her head when she finds her client's partner has been murdered.

SYNOPSIS:

Retired Marine Erica Jensen's goal is to kick her opioid addiction and learn to manage the PTSD she developed while deployed in Afghanistan, all while trying to establish herself as a licensed private investigator. To do that, she must endure hours of court-ordered group therapy, which she so thoroughly doesn't enjoy.

In this story, Erica takes on a wealthy (and slightly sketchy) client, who hires her to investigate his partner, who he suspects of embezzlement, and find his missing daughter. What she finds is a dead partner, no money, and a lot of unwanted attention from people willing to kill to keep their secrets.

This is the first book in a planned series about Erica and her struggles to overcome her health issues, while establishing her own business.

At this point, I've written two books in the series, this one and FATAL CONNECTIONS. I've started work on the third book.

Eventually, I hope to see Erica join forces with Stephanie Ann "Sam" McRae, the lawyer/sleuth from my first series of mysteries, including my debut novel, IDENTITY CRISIS, which made the New York Times bestseller list in 2011.

This story was nominated for a Shamus Award in 2021.