The Ava Logan Mystery Series
Deep in the Appalachian hills, Ava Logan juggles life as a small-town newspaper publisher and single mother. Everything changes when she becomes the primary witness to her friend’s brutal murder, throwing her into the center of a tense investigation.
Ava’s instincts as a reporter drive her to pursue the truth, even when it means exposing secrets that others are desperate to hide. As a witness, she comes face-to-face with the lengths someone will go to keep those secrets buried.
All the while, Ava wrestles with secrets of her own, fighting to shield her past and protect the fragile world she’s built for herself and her two children—even as everything around her threatens to unravel.
In the heart of Appalachia, newspaper publisher Ava Logan should feel joy and pride as she watches her 13-year-old daughter being baptized in the cold water of Jackson Creek — but she can’t rejoice when thoughts of an employee who failed to show up for work keep pulling her attention away. Scott Curry had never missed a day since he started working for the Jackson Creek Chronicle, and Ava had a bad feeling about his absence.
Ava’s convinced something horrible has happened to Scott. Then she spots his backpack floating down river toward those being baptised. While clue after clue leads her deeper into the hollers of Appalachia–ripe with tradition and folktales, storefront religion, and the darkest of secrets, ava discovers truths about those close to her and about her own beliefs.
With her own life in jeopardy, how deep will Ava go to find the truth? What secrets will she expose? What secrets will she keep?
When long-buried human remains are found at an old deserted mill in Jackson Creek, North Carolina, newspaper publisher Ava Logan uncovers more than a cold case. With a bullet still lodged in the skull, the only certainty is the victim died a violent death. As Sheriff Grayson Ridge and an anthropologist work to identify the remains, Ava sets out to discover where love, betrayal, and family ties entwine. Determined to uncover the identity of the victim, Ava unwittingly sets off a chain reaction of consequences no one in Jackson Creek is prepared for.
Decades-old secrets surface and threaten to destroy those closest to her. Exposing family truths will compromise the ones she loves – not exposing them will jeopardize her relationship with Sheriff Grayson Ridge. What will Ava do for love? How far will a murderer go to bury the truth? How long will they all live the lies?
The Ava Logan Mystery Series continues with Tell Me Where You Are, thrusting Ava into every parent’s worst nightmare when her teenage daughter, Emma, suddenly goes missing. The disappearance sets off a wave of panic and fear, forcing Ava to confront unsettling possibilities and face the harsh reality that anyone, even those she thought she knew, could be involved.
As Ava searches for Emma, she uncovers disturbing evidence pointing toward the shadowy world of human trafficking. The threat is real and pervasive, making her realize just how vulnerable young people are and how quickly a safe environment can become dangerous.
Driven by fierce maternal instinct, Ava refuses to back down until she finds Emma. She knows the statistics. And the clock is ticking.
The Death Doula Series
When F.B.I. agent Emily Gayle’s partner is brutally murdered, Emily forsakes her career at the bureau and returns home to the North Carolina mountains to care for her disabled father. Guilt ridden over leaving her partner alone to die, Emily takes a job as an end-of-life caregiver.
Deep in Appalachia, Jude Courtland is desperate for a fast buck to pay for his grandmother’s chemotherapy. Together with his brother Crispin and cousin Devo, the trio takes to hijacking insulin delivery vans and selling the stolen drugs on the black market. When Emily is assigned to cancer patient Hazel Courtland, the line separating right and wrong begins to blur.
As the hijackings escalate and turn violent, Emily’s intuition hones in on startling evidence she can no longer ignore.
Struggling with the truth, Emily is torn between her conscience and her loyalty to a dying woman. With her own life in jeopardy, Emily’s forced to take a side. Right or wrong, the consequences are deadly.
Award Winning Stand Alones
Shamus Award Finalist
On the run from a double-cross, Las Vegas private investigator Gypsy Moran shows up unexpectedly at his sister Rhonda’s house in Wink, Texas. She introduces Gypsy to one of her former students, 12-year-old Tatum McCallen, who is in need of Gypsy’s services. Tatum wants to hire Gypsy to investigate his father Ryce’s alleged suicide. His dad was a deputy with the Sheriff’s department and was found hanged in their backyard. Tatum believes his father was murdered after he went inquiring after the disappearance of several teenage girls, all undocumented immigrants. Against his better judgment, Gypsy agrees to snoop around to see what he can find. Between dealing with his now married high school sweetheart, a sexy reporter, and hostile police officers, Gypsy has his work cut out for him.
Lynn Chandler Willis’ Wink of an Eye is a strong addition to a long list of The Private Eye Writers of America (PWA) Competition winners that includes Steve Hamilton and Michael Koryta.
A little boy, beaten and left to die in an alley. A cop with a personal life out of control. When their worlds collide, God intervenes. Detective Ellie Saunders’s homicide investigation takes a dramatic turn when a young victim “wakes up” in the morgue. The child has no memory prior to his “rising” except walking with his father along a shiny road. Ellie likes dealing with facts. She’d rather leave all the God-talk to her father, a retired minister, and to her partner, Jesse, a former vice cop with an annoying habit of inserting himself into her life. But will the facts she follows puts Ellie’s life in mortal danger? And will she finally allow God into her heart forever?
