The Art of Evil

Available June 2009

Someone is killing people at the Bellman Museum, staging the deaths as bizarre works of art scattered over the museum's sixty-six lush tropical acres, once the home of famed circus magnate and art connoisseur, Richard Bellman.

FBI Special Agent Aurora "Rory" Travis is on a long-term visit to her grandmother in Florida while enduring a slow and painful recovery from a three-story fall that killed her partner and lover. Although broken in spirit as well as body, Rory volunteers as a tram driver at the Bellman just to keep some contact with a world outside her own misery. The last thing she wants is a mystery too tantalizing to ignore. But when she discovers a friend is rapidly becoming a suspect, she can't resist a little private sleuthing.

Josh Thomas arrives in Rory's life on a clap of thunder. Josh is a man of mystery and danger, a man with major secrets. A man capable of going to extremes to get what he wants. Josh has designs on Rory, but it's hard to tell whether he's on the side of the angels or the devil.

Detective Sergeant Ken Parrish is assigned the challenging case of odd pranks at the Bellman that soon escalate into murder. Ken is everything Josh Thomas is not: reliable, trustworthy, a rock solid law enforcement officer. Unfortunately, he has to include Rory, the wounded warrior, on his suspect list. She's suffered a severe trauma; she might be suffering a total breakdown.

Rory feels betrayed by both Josh and Ken, but one of them is in the shadows, watching her back, when she has to face her worst nightmare while going one-on-one with the villain.