Join me, John Clark, Matt Cost, and Maureen Milliken this coming Sunday, June 25th in Belgrade

SUNDAY AT 9 AM – 2 PM

Beach Reads Day

Belgrade Lakes Village Green

I got to be part of a fun collection of stories featuring authors’ series characters. A great summer read!

Very excited to share this book trailer for my domestic suspense Teach Her a Lesson from Encircle Publications debuting on May 24th:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1a0uTlJ3KSy0_7dpOyD4YnWdqlAjQKdVX

Here’s the buying link: https://www.amazon.com/Teach-Her-Lesson-Kate-Flora/dp/1645994384/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1683143753&sr=8-1

Happily, post-pandemic, live events are starting to happen. This is where I will be next week:

In case you’re interested, here’s a youtube link to me introducing a short program by Avi Kaufman on Short Cast Club, a podcasting program for everyone:

Links for Lincoln County talk:

Jen Blood: https://jenblood.com Erin Solomon mysteries, stories with some paranormal elements, and the Flint K-9 Search and Rescue mysteries

Robin MacCready: A school teacher who is also the Edgar winning author of the Y/A mystery Buried and A Lie for a Lie

http://www.robinmerrowmaccready.com

Barbara Ross: https://barbararossauthor.com

Long time summer resident of Boothbay Harbor, she is the author of 10 Maine clambake mysteries set on the Maine coast as well as the Jane Darrowfield professional busybody mysteries

Lea Wait: author of the Shadows antique print mysteries and Mainely Needlepoint mysteries, writing as Cornelia Kidd, the author of the Maine murder series. https://leawait.com

Kate Flora: Giving a cool talk to the Lincoln County Historical Association about crime writers, including my dear friend Lea Wait. It’s a zoom event. Use the Facebook link to sign up. THURSDAY, MAY 26, 2022 AT 6 PM – 7 PM

https://www.penbaypilot.com/article/crime-writer-kate-flora-discusses-her-craft-her-friend-and-lincoln-county-mysteries/160298–

https://www.facebook.com/events/688619385739381

In Rhode Island next week? Curious about how writers craft their true crime? I’ll be doing this in Warwick, RI next Tuesday at 2:00 at the library:

https://warwicklibrary.org/adult-book-discussion/events/15355/sisters-crime-new-england-presents-we-are-not-making

 

Maine Crime Writers present Casting Call: How Writers Staff Their Mysteries.

Event Date:

Thursday, October 28, 2021 – 6:00pm

Maine Crime Writers will present a panel of four local authors to share their insights into writing. Learn how Kate Flora, Maureen Milliken, Susan Vaughan, and Maggie Robinson come up with their varied and interesting casts. If you’re a writer or a reader, this event will make you take a second look at your favorite characters and give you insight into writing your own. Here’s the Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/96521337579

And on a similar note, here’s a program including our own Kate Flora focusing on how writers create suspense:

CFA Mystery Night
” Sunday, October 31, 2021
” 7:00 PM 8:00 PM
CFA Mystery Night
Keeping The Pages Turning:
How Crime Writers
Create Suspense
Join CFA Mystery Night emcee and celebrated author Kate Flora to discover how to create suspense in fiction with mystery writers Susan Oleksiw, Dale Phillips and Susan Smith.
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZApdu-vqj4pE9FirNRR9ktgLuFfKZzlSBEy

Here’s me doing a podcast for Sisters in Crime about writing and the writing life:

Published today (April 20th!) Book 7 in my Joe Burgess series, A World of Deceit.

More about this book in Rae Francoeur’s column today:

https://www.wickedlocal.com/story/cape-ann-beacon/2021/04/19/author-kate-flora-blogs-writing-joe-burgess-mystery-series/7292070002/

Tried my hand at a bit of graphics. Not my forte, but here’s what happened and here’s the buying link: https://amzn.to/39K4lm4

For anyone looking for a little, very basic, writing advice, here’s a wee video with some of mine:

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Sisters in Crime presents: The State of Suspense. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.

https://zoom.us/j/95729646378?pwd=cWU5a0pmblo4QXNJTGkxdHA5UEl3UT09

Thursday, October 29th at 7:00 p.m. A panel discussion featuring past and present presidents of Sisters in Crime! Join us as we welcome the following panelists: Connie Hambley- Current president of the Sisters in Crime New England Chapter Sharon Daynard- Recent past president of the Sisters in Crime New England Chapter Kate Flora- Past president of Sisters in Crime, both nationally and of the New England Chapter.

Coming October 27th 

With most book events canceled, I’m excited to be doing a virtual book event at the McArthur Library this Thursday. You can sign up to join the conversation.

Coming to ebook on May 20th from SoulMate Publishing – my first-ever attempt at romantic suspense:

On Sale Now:

Amazon https://amzn.to/339zjOz    BN  https://bit.ly/30JVrxh

iBooks https://apple.co/2V8BsHa    Kobo https://bit.ly/2OdKl0R

Google Play http://bit.ly/31KifhJ

What Readers Are Saying:

 Detective Joe Burgess and his partners, Terry Kyle and Stan Perry investigate the body of a young girl found dumped in a park. Joe is an older cop and is beginning to wonder if it is time for him to move on, while his partners value the experience he brings to each case. The investigation will soon encompass the exploitation of young girls coming to the United States seeking asylum and the criminals that feed off of their desperation. In my opinion, if you are looking for a well-rounded mystery detailing the gritty and daily time-consuming work of detectives pursuing and following the evidence, then the Joe Burgess series is a must read. Characters that don’t give up, sometimes hardened by what they see each day, but compassionate in remembering that they are to “serve and protect.”

 This one was deep. All of the Burgess books are, but this one really shows you why the lives of police officers and their families are so difficult. To see the things they do, to continue to function in their duty, to live that life, and then go home and try to live with their families and friends in a normal existence has to be a level of stress like few of us will ever know. Kate takes us into their world with depth and realism that’s rarely seen. The settings, relationships the officers have and the unrelenting pressure that she builds around the characters is gripping,

 This is another great Joe Burgess novel. The subject matter is tough…but, unfortunately, real and Kate has handled it well. I thoroughly enjoyed being back with Joe, his family and co-workers. And I have already Pre-ordered the next in this series. Thanks, Kate, for your true to life stories that keep us coming back for more.

Great review of A Child Shall Lead Them:

A great interview of me for Sisters in Crime:

https://sincne.clubexpress.com/content.aspx?page_id=2507&club_id=338034&item_id=2026&pst=8859&fbclid=IwAR39X-jLXjz1hYZaPb4lxonn2pujrwFL6bYAga3zNvbNSUYrWwrSFtlO710

Amazon Barnes & Noble Apple Books Google Kobo

Kate Flora and her writing companions Katy Munger, Taffy Cannon, Gary Phillips, and Lise McClendon have a valentine present for you. From February 13-17, Beat, Slay, Love will be free! Here’s the link: https://www.amazon.com/Beat-Slay-Love-Delicious-Revenge-ebook/dp/B015BQUZCK/

There’s a neat interview with me in the August 22nd issue of Maine Tourist News. Here’s the link: http://www.touristnewsmaine.com/images/issues/tnews_82318_issue.pdf

Thrilled to learn that Death Warmed Over is a finalist for the Maine Literary Award for Crime Fiction.

Coming soon – a collection of my crime stories:

After a 2 1/2 year journey, Shots Fired has finally arrived!

Today’s media is filled with discussions about officer-involved shootings. Too often missing from that discussion are the police officers’ voices and the reality of what happens in actual shooting incidents. Through interviews with involved officers, this book addresses common myths and misunderstandings about
these shootings.

Shots Fired: The Misunderstandings, Misconceptions, and Myths about Police Shootings  is a journey “behind the shield” which highlights the experiences of the real human beings in the line of fire. It explores true events through the participants’ own eyes and takes readers inside the minds of officers during the actual event. The officers detail the roller coaster of emotions and severe trauma experienced during and after a shooting event.

Along with the intimate, in-depth explorations of the incidents themselves, the book touches the aftermath of police-involved shootings—the debriefings, internal and external investigations, and psychological evaluations. It challenges many commonly held assumptions created by the media such as the meaning of “unarmed” and why the police can’t just “shoot him in the leg,” creating an understanding that reaches beyond slogans such as “hands up, don’t shoot.”

The book, written by Joseph K. Loughlin and Kate Clark Flora,  is valuable reading for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of police shootings—officers and police departments, reporters and politicians, and the public who rely on the police to keep them safe.

Buy it now at Amazon:

http://amzn.to/2i1FQWf

Buy it now at Barnes & Noble:

http://bit.ly/2iJMVdy

Ask for it at your library or local bookstore

Reviews

Kate is insanely excited that her story in The Obama Inheritance got a shout out from Maureen Corrigan on NPR:

http://www.npr.org/2017/10/09/556571413/collection-puts-a-playful-pulpy-twist-on-preposterous-stories-about-obama

https://www.amazon.com/Obama-Inheritance-Fifteen-Stories-Conspiracy-ebook/dp/B06XYPF7WG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1507582056&sr=8-1&keywords=the+obama+inheritance

There’s a new Thea Kozak:

Book Eight: Death Warmed Over

Arriving to view what will hopefully be her dream home, Thea Kozak finds her real estate agent, Ginger Stevens, tied to a chair, surrounded by fiery space heaters. Just before the woman dies, she utters the indistinct words: Bobby. So long. Safe. Sorry.

Then a stranger, claiming to be Ginger’s boyfriend, corners Thea, demanding a package that Ginger gave to her, a package Thea never received.

Determined to get justice for Ginger, Thea begins her own investigation. Ginger’s colleagues know little about her, her apartment has been professionally sanitized, Ginger Stevens is the name of a child who died many years ago, and the Maine police have no idea who real-estate agent Ginger Stevens really is.

But Thea is sure the two men following her know Ginger’s true identity, and will stop at nothing to keep her from uncovering the truth behind the woman’s dying words.

There’s a new Joe Burgess:

Responding to a “shots fired” call at an abandoned warehouse, Detective Joe Burgess realizes his worst nightmare when he finds one rookie officer shot dead and two other officers–one his lieutenant–gravely wounded.

With two brother officers near death, Burgess must race the clock to find and arrest the one person angry enough to seek revenge against the Portland police, before the rookie officer’s funeral turns into a killing field.

Maine Literary Award finalist!

A great review from Bangor Daily News columnist George Smith: http://georgesmithmaine.com/articles/book-reviews/july/2017/another-suspenseful

What people are saying about the book:

Best police procedural I’ve read in a long time. Interesting plot, suspense from page one, and characters you’ll care about. This is the first Joe Burgess I’ve read. While I’ll go back and read the earlier books in the series, it wasn’t necessary in order to understand this story. The author gives you just enough but not too much of prior events. If you’re into cop stories, I highly recommend this one.
One of the best books I’ve read in a lifetime of reading! Truly did not want to put it down.

Well written and a speedy read. Great story with some wonderful characters. And of course some not so wonderful. Couldn’t put this one down, a real page Turner.

Words fail me! I have seldom read such a well written book. Good story line and some great characters.
The tension and suspense racks high with a smooth flow to the ending.
Really outstanding in the genre. Kate Flora is now a favourite author!

This was my first Joe Burgess book. I found it drew me into an honorable policeman’s world and kept me glued to it. Here is a good clean book full of dedication to duty, love for family, loyalty to all those who gave their lives to protect and defend others. It’s a fast paced mystery.

It is so refreshing to read a book about the life of a policeman without the author painting in tons of character flaws in an effort to make their protagonist “human”.
I normally read British detective book, but found this American police procedural engrossing. The characters were well drawn, especially Joe. I rarely leave feedback, but this a was such a pleasure, I wanted to encourage other fellow mystery readers to try it. I am off to buy the other books in this series.

Check out Kate and Roger here:

In case you are curious about why Kate’s name is on a Maine Game Warden’s memoir, here’s a couple small samples of what you might hear us say at a book talk:

WLBZ2 – 207 Interview

MPBN Interview

A GOOD MAN WITH A DOG

By Roger Guay with Kate Clark Flora

A game warden’s journey from the woods of Maine to the swamps of New Orleans.

When Roger Guay’s father died in a tragic fishing accident, a kind game warden helped him through the loss. Inspired by this experience, as well as his love of the outdoors, Guay became a game warden and certified K9 handler, beginning a successful career that would span twenty-five years and see him establish canine units as a staple of the game warden service.

Guay takes readers into the patient, watchful world of a warden catching poachers and protecting pristine wilderness, and the sometimes CSI-like reconstruction of deer- and moose-poaching scenes. Guay searches for lost hunters and hikers, estimating that over the years, he has pulled more than two hundred bodies out of Maine’s north woods. His frequent companion is a little brown lab named Reba, who can find discarded weapons, ejected shells, hidden fish, and missing people.

A Good Man with a Dog explores Guay’s life as he and his canine partners are exposed to increasingly terrible events, from tracking down hostile poachers to searching for victims of violent crimes, including a year-long search for the hidden graves of two babies buried by a Massachusetts cult. He witnessed firsthand FEMA’s mismanagement of the post-Katrina cleanup efforts in New Orleans, an experience that left him scarred and disheartened. But he found hope with the support of family and friends, and eventually returned to the woods he knew and loved from the days of his youth.

Shortlisted for the Agatha and the Maine Literary Award

Public Safety Writers Association Finalist

GIRLS’ NIGHT OUT

Getting a six-foot dead man into his SUV wasn’t easy for a small woman in stilettos and a pencil skirt. He flopped like a dead fish and seemed to have more limbs than an octopus. I now understood the true meaning of the term dead weight. But hard or not, I was sending Jay Hanrahan home and without the good time he’d planned on when he’d had the bartender dump that powder into my drink. Even with Georgia and Callie there to help, it was a challenge. We couldn’t just roll him or drag him; we had to use kid gloves. We needed to get him back to his own place intact and unbruised, put him in his jammies, and get him into bed.

As we levered him into the front and fastened his seat belt, a truly ironic precaution under the circumstances, I thought about the crazy sequence of events that had brought us here. It wasn’t the sort of thing my book group usually did.

DEATH DEALER

When Miramichi, New Brunswick resident Maria Tanasichuk’s husband David reports her missing, the local police force is perplexed: they have had a close relationship with the Tanasichuks and know David as a loving and supportive husband, yet his account of Maria’s disappearance contains disturbing inconsistencies. Soon they discover that David has been using drugs heavily and Maria’s efforts to stop him have frayed the marriage. Witnesses report he has been selling Maria’s belongings to support his drug use, has been involved with another woman and has engaged in suspicious, nighttime comings-and-goings. Further disclosures suggest that he played a role not only in Maria’s disappearance, but also in several unsolved murders.

The fact that they cannot locate Maria’s body — combined with David’s clever, deceptive ways — make it impossible for the Miramichi police to prove their suspicions. As signs that David may in fact be a dangerous killer mount, the police officers tracking him fear, rightly, that at any moment he could unleash his vengeful violence on their families. Only when they look across the border into Maine and enlist the help of the Maine Warden Service and trained cadaver dogs and dedicated handlers are Miramichi’s police officers able to undertake the long and grueling search for the evidence they need: Maria’s body.

JOE BURGESS MYSTERIES

LED ASTRAY

Responding to a “shots fired” call at an abandoned warehouse, Detective Joe Burgess realizes his worst nightmare when he finds one rookie officer shot dead and two other officers–one his lieutenant–gravely wounded.

With two brother officers near death, Burgess must race the clock to find and arrest the one person angry enough to seek revenge against the Portland police, before the rookie officer’s funeral turns into a killing field.

AND GRANT YOU PEACE

This 4th book in the Joe Burgess mystery series finds the Maine detective pulled into a case rife with religious tensions after screams for help lead him to a woman and a baby locked in a closet inside a burning mosque. The baby dies. The very young mother survives, but suffers from traumatic muteness. She has no ID, and no one has reported her missing. When the autopsy shows the baby was gravely ill, and needed surgery to survive, Burgess suspects someone was trying to keep mother and baby away from hospitals that might have asked questions.

The mosque’s Somali Imam claims to have no knowledge of the girl, or of who was responsible for scrawling anti-Muslim graffiti on the mosque’s walls. Burgess learns that the “Iron Angels,” an outlaw motorcycle gang led by William “The Butcher” Flaherty has been harassing the mosque’s members. Then someone tries to steal the baby’s body. Burgess has been hoping to regain a semblance of “normal family life,” but there, too, things are complicated. First, by the threat that his son will be suspended from school. Then by the chilling knowledge that his family is being stalked.

As Burgess tries to sort out the tangle of a suspicious and uncooperative immigrant community, an outlaw gang, and a mysterious man who may be involved with both, clues lead to another body, a stash of stolen guns and ultimately, a tense confrontation in which the staggering extent of death and destruction that’s been sowed in the name of greed is revealed.

REDEMPTION

Burgess’s hopes for a calm Columbus Day picnic slam up against reality when two boys spot a dead body in the water.

It’s Reggie the Can Man—a damaged, alcoholic veteran who Burgess has tried to patch back together since they returned from Vietnam. Now, Reggie’s fight for redemption is over.

Then the ME questions Reggie’s accidental drowning, giving Burgess one last chance.

As Burgess dives deep, he uncovers Reggie’s ex-wife, his scofflaw son, industrial toxins, corrupt businessmen, and that Reggie isn’t the only one in need of redemption.

THE ANGEL OF KNOWLTON PARK

Portland, Maine, homicide detective Joe Burgess needs a vacation. But there’s a dead child in Knowlton Park.

Rolling up on the scene with a canoe on the roof and fishing poles flapping, Burgess finds little Timmy Watts, viciously stabbed, and carefully wrapped in a new blue blanket.

Timmy’s parents are life-long crooks, his brothers deal drugs and his sister turns tricks. The only one who seems to care is Timmy’s hearing-impaired sister, Iris. But she’s keeping her secrets.

Then Iris disappears, and Burgess is battling against time to keep more children from dying.

PLAYING GOD

On an icy February night, the body of Steven Pleasant, a prominent Portland, Maine physician, grows cold in his parked Mercedes. All signs point to a john killed by a disgruntled hooker: his pants are unzipped, wallet is gone, and the good doctor has a reputation for entertaining girls in his car.

But the deeper Detective Sergeant Joe Burgess digs, the muddier the case becomes. While juggling hookers, wives, ex-wives, fathers, stepfathers, dealers and doctors, a nurse on Pleasant’s staff suggests another angle—disgruntled patients.

Now, ensconced in the darkness of a sleeping hospital, Burgess comes face-to-face with ghosts from his past and must decide what being a detective really means.

“Dazzling debut police procedural.” ~Publisher’s Weekly Starred Review

“A triumph in the police procedural genre. Highly recommended.” ~Library Journal Starred Review

FINDING AMY

Attractive, intelligent, and responsible, twenty-five-year-old Amy St. Laurent always called to let her family know where she was. A loving daughter, dependable worker, and a generous soul, she won the heart of everyone she met. But one night—and one man devoid of a conscience—would change all that.

On an October evening in 2001, Amy set out to show a friend from Florida the nightlife of Portland. She played pool. She danced. Then she disappeared. What followed were an investigation and trial that would require the patient diligent of two police agencies, devastate a family, and keep and entire state on edge for months.

The Thea Kozak Series

CHOSEN FOR DEATH

The first novel in the Thea Kozak series.

Her little sister is dead, murdered in a picturesque Maine town. The police have no leads. Her heartbroken family wants to put it behind them, but Thea Kozak can’t let it drop. She’s always been a second mother to the child her parents adopted when she was eight. Now there is one last thing Thea can do for her sister: make sure her killer doesn’t go unpunished.

DEATH IN A FUNHOUSE MIRROR

Thea Kozak is a young, dynamic businesswoman who is no stranger to success…or death. Having survived her husband’s death, Thea’s world crumbled again when her sister was murdered. Thea found her sister’s killer and is putting the pieces of her life back together. Her days as an amateur detective are over.

Or are they?

Helene Streeter seemed to have it all—she was the perfect wife, a mother, and the consummate professional. But when this paragon of virtue is brutally slaughtered outside her suburban home, friends and family are left with more questions than answers. Thea’s old college roommate begs her to find the killer. Thea agrees to help, if only to comfort her friend. But comfort turns to danger as Thea is drawn into a web of deceit and madness as she unravels the lies that surround the victim.

Just who was Helene Streeter…and what monsters were hidden behind her oh-so-perfect façade?

DEATH AT THE WHEEL

“Thea Kozak is a terrific, in-your-face, stand-up gal…Stephanie Plum and Thea Kozak would have a lot to say to each other.” Janet Evanovich

Thea Kozak is smart and funny, a very modern kind of woman who is carving out a career for herself while juggling all the stresses of a working woman’s life. She works too hard. She’s trying to maintain a long-distance relationship with Andre, the devilishly handsome Maine state trooper she met while trying to solve her sister’s murder. She’s trying to win her critical mother’s approval. She’s trying to find time to get to the gym. And things are about to get a lot more complicated.

Home for Easter dinner, Thea’s mother introduces her to Julie Bass, a sweet young widow whose husband died in a horrific accident at the local auto racetrack. Julie is the woman Thea’s mother wants her to be—one who married a suitable man and produced adorable children. Thea’s mother wants Thea to use her own experience of losing a husband to help Julie deal with widowhood. Thea is sympathetic, but she’s also very busy. And she’s reluctant to revive the pain that helping Julie will bring.

AN EDUCATED DEATH

When a young student drowns in a campus pond at a prestigious New England boarding school, tough businesswoman Thea Kozak faces what may be her most tragic mystery yet. The death rocks the private school world, and Thea is called in for crisis management and to reevaluate the school’s rather careless procedures for keeping track of students. But when Thea discovers that the young victim was pregnant, cooperation vanishes. Suddenly, no one will talk to her. Undaunted, Thea keeps digging, finding, beneath the school’s genteel veneer, a host of nasty secrets. Suddenly, too many people want her gone so their secrets can be kept, and under one of those rocks she’s overturned, there’s a killer who doesn’t want to be found.

“If a sleep-losing page turner is your thing, keep an eye on Thea. She’s one of the good guys.” Richard Barre

“Kate Flora does what all great writers do: she takes you inside unfamiliar territory and makes you feel right at home.” –Michael Connelly

“Thea Kozak is a terrific, in-your-face, stand-up gal in the moving and compelling story of grown-ups who fail the students in their care. Stephanie Plum and Thea Kozak would have a lot to say to each other.” –Janet Evanovich

DEATH IN PARADISE

While on a holiday to attend an educational seminar in Hawaii, Thea Kozak is determined not only to make the conference a success but to take some time to relax from her demanding job and enjoy some sun and the beach. What she hasn’t bargained for is a dead body, none other than the conference chairwoman, dressed like an expensive call girl, and strangled.

As Thea struggles to keep the conference from descending into chaos, she discovers more motives for the woman’s death than positive aspects of her life—and more suspects than she can handle. Throw in some hostile local cops, the victim’s suspicious husband, and an old family friend who makes Thea’s difficult mother look like a saint, and a fellow snorkeler who definitely wants her dead, Thea’s hopes for rest and quiet are dashed. But with some help from her own team—an observant little girl named Laura, a too-observant pathologist, and her dear friend Jonetta, Thea may come out of this alive.

LIBERTY OR DEATH

Thea Kozak believes it’s her job to be the strong one in a crisis. She’s survived her husband’s death and her sister’s brutal murder. She’s gone head to head with bad guys and lived to fight another day. She’s a survivor who has used her courage and strength to help others. But now Thea is looking forward to an oasis of happily ever after with Andre Lemieux, the Maine state trooper she met when her sister was killed.

The way to their wedding has not been smooth; she hopes the future will be. And then, dressed in her poufy white dress and ready to stand and the altar and commit to the man she loves, she gets some awful news: Andre has been taken hostage by a militant militia group, and they won’t release him unless one of their members is freed from jail. The State of Maine doesn’t want to release him. Even if they did, the man doesn’t want to be released.

She’s supposed to sit home like a good little bride and wait for law enforcement to bring Andre home, but Thea’s never been good at sitting on her hands. Especially not now, when the man she loves is in danger. Instead, she ties on an apron and goes undercover in the town where she suspects he’s hidden. And finds herself facing the most terrifying and ruthless adversaries of her life.

STALKING DEATH

The seventh Thea Kozak mystery finds the crisis counselor traveling to a New Hampshire private school, where a student claims she is being stalked. But Thea soon finds this is no ordinary case: the alleged victim, a basketball player, is physically imposing, with a sharp temper and all the appearance of being able to defend herself if need be; the alleged stalker seems to be a pillar of the community; and the school’s headmaster seems irrationally and suspiciously convinced that the student’s claim is bogus. When Thea uncovers some of the school’s most tightly guarded secrets, she begins to understand that solving this case has the potential to unleash more violent reactions. The Kozak novels are always smart and satisfying, and Thea is a bright, strong-willed, sharp-tongued protagonist who never fails to entertain. –David Pitt, Booklist

DEAD OF WINTER

Dead of Winter brings together eight established crime authors in a collection of intriguing, surprise-filled short stories full of buried secrets, back-stabbing and revenge— all set against the chilling backdrop of winter, the cruelest season of all.

Author Sarah Shaber brings back historian Simon Shaw in the intriguing Flesh Upon the Mountains, while Kate Flora’s Bone China offers up a deceptively innocent account of a loyal wife. Feathersmith’s Excellent Plan by L.A.-based crime writer Gary Phillips examines what happens when two seeming strangers cross paths and turn out to have shared a strange past indeed.

In The Honey Trap, Rory Tate (a.k.a. Lise McClendon) gives us reporter Mimi Raynard in a Seattle snowstorm, a story of secrets and the stilettos that inspire the spilling of them. In Iced, Taffy Cannon writes about Aunt Betty, a beloved icon in a family beset by tragedy, raising the question of whether we ever truly know anyone. Acclaimed EQMM short story master Brynn Bonner offers up High Postage, the story of a naïve young woman fighting to free the convicted murderer she loves. But is everything as it seems?

Southern noir thriller writer J.D. Rhoades weighs in with the unforgettable I’ll Be Home for Christmas, a holiday tale that will have you turning on all the lights before you enter your house and checking the bottom of your Christmas stocking for a concealed .38. Finally, in Library of Souls, Katy Munger (a.k.a. Chaz McGee) gives us another fascinating glimpse into the world of dead detective Kevin Fahey, who encounters another ghost at the funeral of a young girl and recognizes him as a career pedophile he busted long ago. Fahey soon discovers that, just like the living, the undead are not always what they seem.

This anthology of all new, original stories is edited by Katy Munger and Lise McClendon.

STEAL AWAY

Children’s book illustrator Rachel Stark is living every parent’s nightmare: her nine-year-old son, David, has been snatched off the street in broad daylight with no apparent motive, his red bicycle left lying on the side of the road. Now, already bearing the strain of a troubled marriage, Rachel must channel every ounce of strength into a desperate search for David.

Complicating everything are Rachel’s recently divorced sister, a bombshell who conceals explosive secrets; an icy, by-the-book detective, infuriating in his professional detachment; Rachel’s own lawyer husband, Stephen, who believes he can manage the situation through bullying and logic; and a deceptive “saint” from the Missing Child Foundation, who harbors his own hidden agenda.

Through it all there is David, crying out to be found. But are Rachel’s visions of her terrified child something real or the cruel trick of a mother’s heart consumed with love and fear?