Maddie Richards is an efficient and resourceful detective with a secret wish that she could handle her messy personal life as well as she handles her work life. As a homicide sergeant for the Phoenix, Arizona Police Department, she has one of the highest solve rates in America. Her success leads her chief of police to assign her a serial killer case. Some sicko the press calls the Beholder is killing beautiful women. Her chief describes the case as “a career maker or breaker, get me?”

She has an ex-husband she still cares for, but who was bad for her and her ten-year-old son. Her widowed mother who lives with her is both a blessing and a trial. And, oh yes, her ex-husband has married an extremely wealthy and politically connected woman who cannot give birth. So, Maddie’s ex is filing a motion to obtain permanent custody of their son, citing the risks attendant to Maddie’s police work endanger the boy.

If that were not enough, the brother-in-law of the chief of police is using his position as an administrative assistant to sexually harass Maddie. She could file a formal complaint, but the good-old-boys network in the department is watching how she handles the situation.

Further complicating Maddie’s life is two love interests: Gary Packard, a hunk who recently moved in across the street, and Lincoln Rogers, a confirmed bachelor, who lives thousands of miles away and works for the FBI.

As the case develops Maddie learns that the victims all wore the same bra size. She must decide if this is merely a coincidence or a criterion the killer uses when selecting his victims. She also finds that each of the victims is somehow connected to the Phoenix police department. This realization isolates her further as she must pursue the killer without disclosing this theory to her department because, if her suspicion is correct, the Beholder would learn she is closing in.

As the story races toward its climax, Maddie is betrayed by those closest to her, and she begins to believe her own name may be on the killer’s list.

DEATH OF A BANKSTER

Maddie Richards finds herself in the middle of a case which starts with the sights and sounds of just another murder investigation. A woman claims her husband, a banker, was murdered. Later, Maddie learns that the woman had begun divorce proceedings the day before she claims a bullet had taken her husband from her. The murder greased her path to not only ending her marriage, but negating any need to divide their marital property. Then the wheels come off and nothing about Maddie’s case is what it seems.

Ryan Testler, last seen in David Bishop’s novel The Woman, guest stars. Maddie’s son, Bradley, and her mother, Rita, return as the stable underpinnings to Maddie’s life. On her day job, Maddie continues to work her strange and twisting investigation. At night, she is increasingly taken with the most unusual and fascinating man she has ever known—Ryan Testler. On his day job, Ryan carries out his latest mission in his usual over-the-line style. Along the way, the sparks between Maddie and Ryan get hotter and hotter while they struggle to resolve their conflicting views on justice and whether the end can justify the means.