Current projects
- Chicago Cop - A police thriller featuring GUTS team head Lieutenant Maggie Delaney.
- Miranda's Rights - A five-book romantic mystery series detailing hardened loner Miranda Steele's search for her daughter and growth as a detective.
- The Prasala Chronicles - A series of category romances about three women from Kentucky.
Chicago Cop - 100,000 words. Complete.
A police officer is shot in a crime-ridden Chicago neighborhood and Lieutenant Maggie Delaney's GUTS team is called in to investigate. When the clues point to the Mob's chief hit man, "The Meat Cleaver" -- nicknamed after the special way he kills his victims -- Maggie fears her past has come back to haunt her.
Twelve years ago, her father was shot to death by The Meat Cleaver's don, Dominick Carmelli, one of the most feared mob bosses in the history of the Chicago Outfit. Against her family's wishes, Maggie joined the police force to relentlessly hunt down vicious mobsters and gang members. Ten years later, she arrested Carmelli and got him sent to the federal penitentiary.
Now the Mob is out for revenge, with The Meat Cleaver doing the dirty work. The sinister plan is to make Maggie suffer by murdering the people she cares about in an ever-narrowing circle. First the police officer, a distant relative. Next a friend. Next a coworker. Next a closer relative. And finally, Maggie herself.
Troubles are brewing at home, too. Maggie's medical professor husband of fifteen years wants a divorce, while she finds herself fighting her own attraction to the charms of a handsome criminal defense attorney -- a profession she despises. But Maggie knows time is running out when she starts to get pictures of The Meat Cleaver's latest victims on her cell phone. Her team has to find the killer before it's too late for everyone.
This time it's not business . . . it's personal.
Miranda's Rights
A five-book romantic suspense mystery series featuring kickass heroine Miranda Steele, a woman with a painful past she's struggling to escape.
Book I: Someone Else's Daughter - 100,000 words. Complete.
Second Place, 2009 MMRWA HEA Contest - Romantic Suspense
I think I'm adopted. Can you help me find my real parents?
Thirteen years ago Miranda Steele's abusive husband stole her newborn baby from her and threw Miranda out into the cold. Now a hardened loner, Miranda travels to the ritzy Buckhead area near Atlanta to find the child her ex-husband gave up for adoption without her consent.
But in Buckhead, a thirteen-year-old girl has just been murdered and Miranda becomes the chief suspect. The only one who can help her is the sexy, wealthy ace Atlanta investigator, Wade Parker -- someone Miranda wants nothing to do with.
She doesn't care if he's the handsomest thing she's seen in a long time. Or that he makes the air of her jail cell crackle with raw sensuality. She doesn't even care that he's offered to contact a good criminal defense attorney for her. She especially doesn't care when he gets her charges dropped and offers her a job in his PI firm in order to help him solve the girl's murder.
Miranda has come to Buckhead to find her daughter, not investigate a murder. Besides, the long road to self-sufficiency has been hard enough.
Miranda Steele doesn't need a man.
Book II: Delicious Torment - 100,000 words. Complete.
What happens when your old flame turns out to be a killer?
Miranda questions her own reasons for finding for her daughter, while she decides whether to stay at the Parker Agency and become a full-fledged detective. At a ritzy steeplechase, a beautiful young breeder is found dead in one of the stalls, her face smashed in by her favorite horse. It appears to be a bizarre accident, but the woman's sister approaches Miranda and claims that the victim's ex-husband killed her. She begs Miranda to take the case and prove that he did it.
When Miranda brings up the subject up to Parker, he is strangely aloof, not at all like himself. As she looks into the incident on her own, Miranda begins to realize that Parker has a past he doesn't want her to unearth.
Against his better judgment, Parker lets Miranda take the steeplechase case. He'd do nearly anything to please her and keep her at the Agency. He's fallen deeply in love with the feisty, impossible woman. He understands that Miranda's past haunts her. What will she do, he wonders, when he asks her to marry him?
The Prasala Chronicles
Prasala - a small country nestled below the Austrian Alps near Italy, filled with breathtaking landscapes, spectacular castles, and magnificent horses.
The Prasala Chronicles - Stories about three women from Kentucky who travel to this faraway kingdom and fall madly in love with the handsome, powerful members of its royal family.
Her Royal Stallion - 58,000 words. Complete.
2006 Maggie Finalist - Short Contemporary
With his dark piercing stare, Julio de Chambonay might be the handsomest, sexiest man on the planet, but veterinarian Dr. Katy Matthews has no intention of getting involved with the Crown Prince of Prasala. She already learned how devastating a love affair with a rich man can be when she caught her ex-fiance, a wealthy horse-owner from Kentucky, cheating on her -- two months before their marriage. Just because Prince Julio seems to share her love for horses doesn't mean he wouldn't do the same. He'd better keep his distance or he'll lose his horse doctor.
Julio would never have chosen a woman as his new veterinarian. But the intriguing Dr. Matthews has arrested his attention. She's intelligent, bold, and shares his passion for horses. The titled ladies of Europe that clamor for his favor never held his interest the way Katy does. No woman he'd ever known would stand up to him, demand her fee, and threaten to leave his service. He must get to know her better. Nothing serious, of course. Tradition would never allow him to wed a commoner. And yet, when he kisses those luscious lips, Julio can't help wondering how he can ever live without them.
Only for the King
Darcy Matthews, Katy's free-spirited sister, has always been the bubbly one, the one who cheered everyone else up. Though friendly and generous to her family and friends, she's always enjoyed making the men she's dated eat out of the palm of her hand. After all, love is a game. She likes being the one in control. That is, until she meets the dark, seductive King of Prasala. A man who takes her breath away and leaves her speechless. But Darcy can't get involved with him now. Her one chance to go to Los Angeles and fulfill her dream of becoming a singer-songwriter lies just before her.
To Leopold de Chambonay, love is a fantasy. Marriage itself is nothing more than a contract to be entered into as dispassionately as any business deal. He's always been the responsible one. And now that he is King, he has no time for frivolous romantic fantasies. Ruling Prasala is the business that consumes him now. That is, until he hears the lovely singer with the haunting voice and wonders...what are these raging passions he suddenly feels for his new sister-in-law? Can he control them? Or will they force him to set business aside for awhile?
Another Man's Baby
2008 Maggie Finalist - Short Contemporary
Embittered by her recent divorce, pregnant Kentucky socialite Megan Russell escapes to Prasala, a lovely little principality tucked below the Austrian Alps. There she attends a party given by the dangerous Count Philippe de BelleBourge, the most notorious playboy on the continent. Finding her alone, the Count tempts Megan to throw caution to the winds. Since she's lost all trust in men, why not take up with the least trustworthy one of all? But is she heading for another broken heart? This time, she might not recover.
This beauty from Kentucky enthralls and bewilders Philippe. She makes him feel such . . . longing. He's never experienced such sensations with any woman, and there have been many. Could she be the woman in a million who could make him change his lifestyle? Could she be the one who makes him want to settle down? But . . . what if she refuses him?