Book #36 - Midnight Betrayal

Curator Dr. Louisa Hancock left behind Maine and her troubled past for Philadelphia and a job at a prominent museum. Just when it seems that Louisa’s new life is safe from her dark secrets, the body of a museum intern is found—the victim of a brutal and baffling murder.

Louisa realizes this is no random crime. And when another intern goes missing, the abduction is linked to the only man who has ever tempted Louisa’s heart—Conor Sullivan, the owner of a Philly sports bar. Louisa’s past has taught her to be wary, but her heart refuses to believe Conor is guilty.

Now Conor and Louisa must dodge a police investigation as they race to find the real killer before another girl turns up dead. In their darkest hour, they find themselves drawn to each other. But trusting Conor could be deadly, especially as the evidence against him mounts…and as a merciless killer targets Louisa as the next victim.

Book #35 - Midnight Sacrifice

One by one, people are mysteriously disappearing from a small Maine town. Four months ago, a ruthless murderer killed two people and kidnapped three more, including Danny Sullivan’s sister, who barely escaped. Unfortunately so did the killer, vanishing without a trace into the vast wilderness. When the police fail to find his sister's captor, Danny returns to Maine to hunt him down.

He begins his search with another survivor, bed and breakfast owner Mandy Brown, but her refusal to cooperate raises Danny’s suspicions. What is the beautiful innkeeper hiding?

Mandy Brown has a secret. But sexy Danny Sullivan, his relentless questions, and the feelings that grow between them threaten to expose the truth. A revelation that puts her family in danger. As more people disappear, it becomes clear the killer is planning another ritual…and that he’s circling in on Mandy.

Book #34 - Midnight Exposure

When two hikers disappear from their hometown in Maine, everyone blames the blinding storms. But the truth is far more sinister. Unaware of the danger, tabloid photographer Jayne Sullivan follows an anonymous tip to find the most reclusive sculptor in the art world. Instead, she finds mysterious handyman Reed Kimball—and a small town full of fatal secrets.

Five years ago, Reed buried his homicide detective career along with his wife. But when a hiker is found dead, the local police chief asks Reed for help. Why was a Celtic coin found under the body? And where is the second hiker? Desperate to avoid the media, Reed doesn’t need a murder, a missing person, or a nosey photographer. Until Jayne is attacked, and he realizes that her courage is his undoing. Reed must risk everything to protect her and find a cunning killer.

Book #33 - Forbidden Ways

Karen Ann Hopkins returns to Blood Rock, and the Serenity’s Plain Secrets series, with this gripping new romance installment. This is the beginning of CJ and Joshua’s story.

CJ West is an aspiring artist, nursing a broken heart. Still recovering from a brutal attack that nearly killed her, she needed to get away. The quaint, tranquil countryside seemed like the perfect place to start over.

Joshua Miller is a widower, running a busy farm, and raising three children with help from his grandmother. He came to Blood Rock to escape the ghosts of his past that still haunt him.

When CJ rents a cottage from Joshua, sparks fly, and their lives will never be the same again. Because a relationship between the two is strictly forbidden. He’s Amish and she’s an outsider. Even so, their passion for each other is intense and all-consuming. But how can they possibly be together?

This is a timeless love story, where beliefs about duty, family bonds, culture, and way of life are challenged. And two people from very different worlds must decide if their deep, heart-wrenching love is worth the inevitable life-altering consequences.

Book #32 - Evil In My Town

Some Amish communities aren’t so cozy.

Evil in My Town is the dark and tension-filled new installment to the Serenity’s Plain Secrets’ mystery/crime thriller series. 

After a tragic mass shooting in Blood Rock, Sheriff Serenity Adams is shocked to discover ties to the local Amish settlement, and her teenage niece, who barely survived the carnage. The investigation takes her from the terror of a massacre to an equally horrific crime relating to a missing woman in the community. Serenity must risk her own life to bring law, order, and safety to the town she loves. And this time, she is joined by a US Marshal, who might have his own agenda when it comes to helping Serenity on the case. As the story unfolds, long buried secrets will be revealed, and the climax will keep you flipping the pages until the riveting end. 

Book #31 - Forgiveness Unforgettable

A chilling tale of a southern raised musician whose horrific childhood caused her great pain and distrust.Nikki Lee Brannon endured a life of extreme domestic violence fueled by alcoholism, sexual abuse, and poverty which fostered an atmosphere of complete chaos.Nikki was very fortunate to have an influential Christian mother who instilled the forgiveness of Christ into her life in spite of their daily struggle to survive the rage of her alcoholic father.
Take a walk into this riveting true story of terror,survival,faith and finally forgiveness as Nikki reveals explicit first-hand accounts of her memories.

Book #29 - The Crane Diaries: Dirty Blood

Deep in the swamps of the Louisiana bayou, a horrifying secret lies waiting to be discovered.

A legend haunts the bayou, a chilling tale of a beast that is born from a curse…the Rougarou.

When Emma Rose Crane lets hunter Cass Willow convince her to help him on a ghost hunt, she never imagined she’d be trudging through the swamps, let alone stumbling upon a mess of mangled bodies—or running into the creature responsible for the rotting remains.

With no backup available to them, she’s forced to show Cass her demonic side to help them escape, but that’s not the only problem. When the creature attacked them, it infected them with the same curse that drove it mad. There’s only one hope—kill the beast to cure the infection.

Time is not on their side as they race to save themselves and discover the truth behind the legend. But first they have to survive the effects of the curse long enough to find the creature and put it down… 

Before they succumb to the hunger eating them alive.

Book #30 - The Crane Diaries: Stained

I Am Death.

I Am Darkness.

I Am Creation.

These are the simple truths Emma Rose Crane, AKA Mattie Hathaway, has run from for the last two years, but the situation she finds herself in will not let her flee her past anymore. It’s barreling toward her at the speed of a bullet.
Mattie finds herself back in Charlotte, North Carolina, for the trial of Dan’s mother. She’s determined to see this ordeal through for Dan, even though his vindictive mother uses the situation to try to tear them apart.
If that weren’t enough, she lands on a supernatural hit list and has to rescue a woman who’s close to death—and survive the psycho who took her to begin with.
But just when things start to go right, the unthinkable happens.
Three gunshots.
Three truths.
But in the end, will her past save her future…or will it take everything she cherishes from her?

Book #28 - The Crane Diaries: Homecoming

New Orleans is a city known for its paranormal history—and it’s the place Emma Rose Crane, AKA Mattie Hathaway, has come home to.

She hopes she can start over in New Orleans, where her ability to see ghosts isn't so freaky. She’s even starting college, but the whole thing would be a lot easier if she weren’t faced with a family she barely knows, all while dealing with the loss of someone she loved.

Can she really escape her past and be semi-normal? Even with her sister Mary and best friend Eric by her side, it's going to be a wild ride once she agrees to help Mary's new friends investigate a "haunted" house. 

The house’s new occupants are terrified, and the ghost seems to be attacking their little girl, leaving everyone desperate for answers. Emma isn’t sure what to think when she discovers Dr. Lawrence Olivet was also invited to investigate. 

Will her gifts be enough to save the family that is currently being stalked in their own home? And when some of her own family’s long-kept secrets come to light, will her fresh start be over before it even begins?

Book #27 - Veiled

When a dead body turns up in the hot tub at a high-end resort on the rugged Oregon Coast, forensic investigator Lacey Campbell and her fiancé, Jack Harper, realize their vacation is over.

Tragically, the dead woman is dressed in a wedding gown, even more disturbing for Lacey since she’s about to become a bride. When the victim turns out to be a popular bartender with a bad-news ex-husband, it looks like a domestic quarrel turned deadly. But could there be something more sinister going on in this tight-knit community? Swept into the investigation, Lacey uncovers a killer with a morbid perspective on marriage.

Book #26 - Alone

One rainy night in the woods outside of Portland, Dr. Victoria Peres is called to the site of a haunting crime scene. Six beautiful young girls—all in white dresses and arranged in a perfect circle—have been left for dead. Only one girl, fighting for her life at a nearby hospital, has survived the carnage. Things get stranger still when Victoria and the police discover that the disturbing arrangement of the bodies—as meticulous as it is mysterious—is straight from the pages of a decades-old cold case. Victoria is called on to do what she does best, read the bones of the dead for clues…while dealing with the surprise return of her first love, medical examiner Seth Rutledge. Only this time she must figure out how the two cases, fifty years apart, are connected.

Book #22 - A Merciful Silence

For Mercy Kilpatrick, returning to rural Oregon has meant coming to terms with her roots. Raised as a prepper, Mercy is now relying on her survivalist instincts to defend her town from the people the law can’t reach. But this time, an investigation calling up a dark past for her and police chief Truman Daly may be hitting too close to home.

A rainstorm has uncovered the remains of five people—a reprise of the distinctive slaughter of two families twenty years ago. Except the convicted killer is in prison. Is this the case of a sick copycat, or is the wrong man behind bars? One person might have the answer. The lone survivor of the decades-old crimes has returned to town still claiming that she can’t remember a thing about the night she was left for dead. As the search for the truth becomes more dangerous, Mercy fears that the traumatized woman may not have buried her memories at all. She might be keeping them a secret. And there’s a price to be paid for revealing them.

Book #25 - Buried

Reporter Michael Brody is used to getting answers. The one that’s eluded him, though, for twenty long years is learning what happened to his brother Daniel the day his school bus disappeared. When the remains of the other children are discovered—and Daniel’s aren’t among them—a desperate Michael calls upon the sole survivor of the tragedy, Chris Jacobs, hoping he will finally break his silence.

Constant fear of being found by his kidnapper has driven Chris into hiding. The only lead Michael has is Chris’s sister, Jamie. Strong and impenetrable, she’s capable of burrowing deep into Michael’s heart. As they race to find Chris, Michael and Jamie somehow find each other among the decades of wreckage. But locating Chris may not be so easy. Now grown, his scars go far deeper than skin.

Book #24 - Chilled

As a forensic nurse on a search and rescue team, Brynn Nealey braves a dangerous blizzard to find the survivors of a plane crash in the Cascade Mountains. Joining her is Alex Kinton, a former US Marshal with self-destructive tendencies. Alex lies his way onto Brynn’s team to find the man who killed his brother—and then return the favor. But once the team members reach the plane’s wreckage, they discover everyone aboard has perished…except for the man Alex is hunting. Alex will do whatever it takes to track his target through the vast, snowy wilderness.

As the temperatures drop, however, so do Alex’s defenses. His contact with the sharp, kindhearted Brynn makes his lust for vengeance difficult to reconcile with his growing feelings for a woman who risks her life to help others. What will happen to Alex’s savage instincts when he finally has the opportunity to confront his brother’s killer?

In Chilled, the next thrilling tale in the Bone Secrets saga, Golden Heart finalist Kendra Elliot weaves an icy tale of cold nights, cold hearts, and cold-blooded killers.

Book #23 - Hidden

Eleven years ago, the Co-ed Slayer murdered nine female students on the Oregon State University campus. Lacey Campbell barely escaped his attack, but lost her best friend whose remains were never found. As the sole surviving victim, Lacey helped send the sadistic serial killer to prison for life.

Now a forensic odontologist examining teeth and bones for the state Medical Examiner, Lacey is devastated when she arrives at a crime scene and identifies the skeletal remains as her college friend’s.

The remains are discovered on the land of ex-cop Jack Harper. Sparks fly between him and Lacey, even as they realize that the prosecution’s witnesses from a decade ago are now being murdered one by one. All the evidence points to the Co-ed Slayer as the culprit—only, he’s long since dead. So who’s the new killer? And is Lacey next in line to die?

Golden Heart finalist Kendra Elliot combines chilling suspense and steamy romance in a gripping tale, uniting in-depth forensic knowledge with a passion for thrillers. Set in the snowy winter of Oregon, Hidden creates spine-tingling chills.

Book #21 - A Merciful Secret

Raised off the grid by survivalists, Mercy Kilpatrick believed in no greater safeguard than the backwoods of Oregon. Unforgiven by her father for abandoning the fold for the FBI, Mercy still holds to her past convictions. They’re in her blood. They’re her secrets—as guarded as her private survival retreat hidden away in the foothills.

In a cabin near her hideaway, Mercy encounters a young girl whose grandmother is dying from multiple knife wounds. Hundreds of miles away, a body is discovered slashed to death in a similar way. The victims—a city judge and an old woman living in the woods—couldn’t be more different. With the help of police chief Truman Daly, Mercy must find the killer before the body count rises. Mercy knows that the past has an edge on her. So does her family. How can she keep her secrets now…when they’re the only things that can save her?

Book #20 - A Merciful Truth

Raised by a family of survivalists, FBI agent Mercy Kilpatrick can take on any challenge—even the hostile reception to her homecoming. But she’s not the only one causing chaos in the rural community of Eagle’s Nest, Oregon. At first believed to be teenage pranks, a series of fires takes a deadly turn with the murder of two sheriff’s deputies. Now, along with Police Chief Truman Daly, Mercy is on the hunt for an arsonist turned killer.

Still shunned by her family and members of the community, Mercy must keep her ear close to the ground to pick up any leads. And it’s not long before she hears rumors of the area’s growing antigovernment militia movement. If the arsonist is among their ranks, Mercy is determined to smoke the culprit out. But when her investigation uncovers a shocking secret, will this hunt for a madman turn into her own trial by fire?

Book #19 - A Merciful Death

FBI special agent Mercy Kilpatrick has been waiting her whole life for disaster to strike. A prepper since childhood, Mercy grew up living off the land—and off the grid—in rural Eagle’s Nest, Oregon. Until a shocking tragedy tore her family apart and forced her to leave home. Now a predator known as the cave man is targeting the survivalists in her hometown, murdering them in their homes, stealing huge numbers of weapons, and creating federal suspicion of a possible domestic terrorism event. But the crime scene details are eerily familiar to an unsolved mystery from Mercy’s past.

Sent by the FBI to assist local law enforcement, Mercy returns to Eagle’s Nest to face the family who shunned her while maintaining the facade of a law-abiding citizen. There, she meets police chief Truman Daly, whose uncle was the cave man’s latest victim. He sees the survivalist side of her that she desperately tries to hide, but if she lets him get close enough to learn her secret, she might not survive the fallout…

Book #18 - Secrets Never Die

When a retired sheriff’s deputy is shot to death in his home, his troubled teenage stepson, Evan, becomes the prime suspect. Even more incriminating, the boy disappeared from the scene of the crime.

Desperate to find her son, Evan’s mother begs PI Lance Kruger for help. She knows her son is innocent. Kruger and defense attorney Morgan Dane want to believe that too, but the evidence against the boy is damning. Just as the trail goes cold, another deputy vanishes. His shocking connection to Evan’s stepfather throws the investigation into chaos as Lance and Morgan fear the worst…that Evan is the killer’s new target.

With so many secrets to unravel, will Lance and Morgan find him before it’s too late?

Book #17 - A Bone to Pick

Deputy Tessa Black gave up her career as a detective with the Seattle PD and returned to the Pacific Northwest island she calls home to care for her ailing mother. Tessa thinks her mother’s illness is the worst thing she’ll face—until she responds to a routine call in the state park and discovers a local man harpooned to a sign.

As the murder investigation unfolds, it becomes clear that the victim harbored secrets. Together with her FBI agent best friend, Cate, and park ranger Logan Wilde, Tessa must connect the pieces before the murderer strikes again. But the closer she gets to the truth, the more she finds herself—and the ones she loves—in harm’s way.

Pressure mounts as Tessa attempts to juggle the current case with her search for the truth behind her childhood friend Samantha’s disappearance twenty years ago. Can Tessa find the murderer and uncover answers about Samantha without jeopardizing everything she holds dear?