I left a big-city police department for a fresh start in a smaller town. Less crime. Less murder. But three months later, I’ve been handed the murder investigation of the most hated man in town. The list of potential suspects is as long as Santa’s naughty list, but one name keeps popping up. Maddie Baker. She’s infuriating as hell, but is she a cold-blooded murderer? My instincts tell me no, yet I can’t exactly trust those. The last time I let myself presume someone was innocent, I ended up with a bullet wound and a broken heart.

With a friend’s child missing, and the police failing, disgraced ex-detective Harper enlists the aid of a former crime boss to untangle a mystery that strikes too close to home. Disgraced, ex-detective Harper Adams is perfectly content wallowing at rock bottom. She’s lost her job, house, and reputation, and it only gets worse when she’s forced to move back home to Jackson Creek, Arkansas, the one place she swore she’d never return.

Caroline Blakely is certain of two things: She was happy with her life as a first grade school teacher, and she can never, ever return to it. After discovering a shocking truth about her father, the wealthy businessman at the helm of Blakely Oil, she’s on the run - a difficult feat given her father’s endless resources and connections. With the help of friends, Carly is able to secure a new identity, but her attempts to keep a low profile are blown to bits when she gets stuck in Drum, Tennessee.

In Shoot the Breeze, the first book of the series, a young woman turns up dead along the Mississippi River, and rising-star Detective Kate Rosetti quickly realizes it’s the work of a notorious cross-country serial killer. In the next book, Riddle Me This, Kate gets the news that infamous serial killer Ramone Wilkes has escaped from prison, and she knows that he's on his way to her.

Companion novella to the Rose Gardner Investigation series. This series provides insight into characters in the Rose Gardner world, but is not required to listen to the series.