Mysteries

The New Mexico mystery series!

Book 1: Land of Entrapment (A K.C. Fontero mystery)

Ex-girlfriend. Her missing sister. Violent white supremacists. Ah, Albuquerque!

Join K.C. Fontero in this, the inaugural volume of the New Mexico series. Winner, 2009 GCLS award for one of three best lesfic mysteries. Also a 2009 Lesbian Fiction Readers’ Choice award-winner.

K.C. Fontero left New Mexico in the wake of a bitter breakup to take an academic fellowship in Texas. With a doctorate in sociology and expertise in white supremacist groups, she’s well on her way to an academic career. But a plea for help from her ex, Melissa, brings K.C. back to Albuquerque to find Melissa’s troubled younger sister. Megan has disappeared with her white supremacist boyfriend and K.C. knows she has the expertise to track the mysterious group, and she knows she’ll be doing a public service to uncover it. What she doesn’t know is how far into her past she’ll have to go to find both Megan and herself and the deeper she digs into the group, the greater the danger she faces.

Winner, 2009, Golden Crown Literary Society award, best lesfic mystery.
Winner, 2009, Lesbian Fiction Readers’ Choice award, lesfic mystery

Read an Excerpt!

Cover by Mari SanGiovanni

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Buy it: Bellabooks.com; barnesandnoble.com; amazon.com; Seattle Mystery Bookshop; indiebound.org

Ebook: Kindle, Bella Books; Nook; Kobo

Land of Entrapment (A K.C. Fontero Mystery) (New Mexico, #1)

Book 2: State of Denial (a Chris Gutierrez mystery)

Homicide. Homophobia. Hell of a case. Ah, Albuquerque!

The body of a young gay man buried along the Rio Grande leads Albuquerque police detective Chris Gutierrez down a path of dark secrets and old hatreds. In spite of the other detective assigned to the case — the sexist and possibly homophobic Dale Harper — Chris tracks the killer to an older unsolved case, and to the doors of a local megachurch and a popular minister with ties to ex-gay groups. Enlisting the research skills and networks of sociologist and best friend K.C. Fontero, Chris works to build the case and make an arrest before the killer strikes again, even as she must also face her growing feelings for attorney Dayna Carson. Struggling with the complexity of a difficult case, Chris is drawn into an ominous and potentially deadly game of cat-and-mouse with a man who might kill to protect his own secrets.

Read an excerpt!

Cover by Mari SanGiovanni

Buy it: Bellabooks.com; barnesandnoble.com; amazon.com; Seattle Mystery Bookshop; indiebound.org.

Ebook: Bella Books; Kindle, and Nook; Kobo

State of Denial (A Chris Gutierrez Mystery) (New Mexico, #2)

Book 3: The Ties that Bind (a K.C. Fontero mystery)

Dead man. Dark Spirits. Deep Trouble. Ah, New Mexico!

When the Albuquerque paper reports that an unidentified white man was found dead along a remote stretch of road on the Navajo Reservation in northwestern New Mexico, UNM sociology professor K.C. Fontero thinks she might be able to use the case as an example of culture and jurisdiction in one of her classes. But it’s soon apparent that this dead man might have something to do with a mysterious letter that River Crandall, brother of K.C.’s partner Sage, recently received from the siblings’ estranged father, Bill. What does the letter and Bill’s link to a natural gas drilling company have to do with the dead man? And why would Bill try to contact his son and daughter now, after a decade of silence?

From the streets of Albuquerque to the vast expanse of the Navajo Reservation, K.C. and Sage try to unravel the secrets of a dead ma while Sage confronts a past she thought she’d left behind. But someone or something wants to keep those secrets buried, and as K.C. soon discovers, sometimes beliefs of one culture jump the boundaries of another, threatening to drive a wedge into the relationship she’s building with Sage.

Voted one of five fave lesfic mysteries of 2010 by the Lesbian Fiction Readers’ Choice Awards.

Read an excerpt!

Cover by Mari SanGiovanni

Buy it: Bellabooks.com, barnesandnoble.com, amazon.com, Seattle Mystery Bookshop, indiebound.org

Ebook: Bella Books, Kindle, and Nook; Kobo

The Ties That Bind (A K.C. Fontero Mystery) (New Mexico, #3)

Book 4: Day of the Dead (A Chris Gutierrez mystery)
DoD cover

Murdered man. Missing woman. Malicious intent. Ah, New Mexico!

When a man is shot to death in his house near Albuquerque’s Old Town, homicide detective Chris Gutierrez is called to the scene with fellow detective Dale Harper to investigate. They soon discover that the murder victim may have been involved in human trafficking over the Mexican border, and that he may have attracted enemies in an underground network with its own code of honor. Did someone in that network kill him? Or did his past finally catch up with him? As Chris works to find answers, she also draws the attention of a local anti-immigrant blogger who will go to any length to post damaging and personal information about Albuquerque law enforcement officers, and she knows that her partner, prosecutor Dayna Carson, will be part of that campaign if the blogger discovers their relationship. She has to find a way to watch her back and keep Dayna and her friends and family safe from the blogger’s large audience and prying eyes, even as he dogs her every move.

From Albuquerque to El Paso, Chris is on the trail of a killer who seems to be able to disappear into the cultures on either side of the border, like a ghost or desert wind. Those along the border protect their own, Chris knows, but she has a job to do, even as she draws closer and realizes that sometimes, things aren’t what they seem.

Cover by Mina Yamashita.

Read an excerpt!

Read a review by a law enforcement officer.

Buy it: Bella Books;
Amazon; Barnes and Noble; indiebound.org

Ebook: Bella Books; Kindle ; Nook; Kobo

Day of the Dead (A Chris Gutierrez Mystery) (New Mexico, #4)

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