Talkeetna, Alaska

She fled her abuser, but a killer followed her

Paul Kitka likes fast cars, women and his job as a lieutenant in the Alaska State Patrol. He likes living in Talkeetna, a small town full of quirky people he’s happy to call friends and neighbors. Life is good.

Candace Marshall doesn't know what she likes — being married to an abusive husband had stripped her of all personal preferences. She likes good coffee. She likes her landlord’s kids. She even likes her new job as office manager for Purdue Flight Service. And to her surprise, she likes Alaska.

She came to Alaska to disappear. She chose Talkeetna, a small, remote town at the base of Mount Denali, to start over with a different name — in a state her husband hates, and the state hates him back. It was her best chance.

When Candace finds him dead in her cabin, her first thought is to run again. Who would believe she didn’t kill him?

When Lt. Paul Kitka sees a murdered abusive husband, he assumes the wife killed him — and in Alaska? No one’s going to convict her. But Candace Marshall insists she didn't do it, and reluctantly, he believes her.

So then, who did kill the lobbyist in Alaska hates so much?

Turns out half of Talkeetna had a reason to kill the man, and everyone is lying to him: Candace, the victim's family and co-workers, even Paul's friends and neighbors. And his investigation is exposing all of their secrets.

Now his job is on the line, his town is angry at him, and his partner wants to arrest Candace for murder. But what worries Paul the most, is that in a town full of unstable and angry people, the murderer isn’t done.

Get started now with book one in Talkeetna, a crime mystery series full of people who aren’t what they seem to be, set in an isolated Alaskan town where a cat was elected mayor for a decade.