mystery & thriller

Word Count: Click here to reveal56000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealLesbian (Click here to hide)

Summary: New Hopeland was built to be the centre of the technological age, but like everywhere else, it has its dark side. Assassins, drug dealers and crooked businessmen form a vital part of the city’s make-up, and sometimes, the police are in too deep themselves to be effective. But hey, there are always other options … For P.I. Cassie Tam, business has been slow. So, when she’s hired to investigate the death of a local VR addict named Eddie Redwood, she thinks it’ll be easy money. All she has to do is prove to the deceased’s sister Lori that the local P.D. were right to call it an accidental overdose. The more she digs though, the more things don’t seem to sit right, and soon, Cassie finds herself knee deep in a murder investigation. But that’s just the start of her problems. When the case forces Cassie to make contact with her drug dealing ex-girlfriend, Charlie Goldman, she’s left with a whole lot of long buried personal issues to deal with. Then there’s her client. Lori Redwood is a Tech Shifter, someone who uses a metal exoskeleton to roleplay as an animal. Cassie isn’t one to judge, but the Tech Shifting community has always left her a bit nervous. That wouldn’t be a problem if Lori wasn’t fast becoming the first person that she’s been genuinely attracted to since splitting with Charlie. Oh, and then there’s the small matter of the police wanting her to back off the case. Easy money, huh? Yeah, right.

Honorable Mention: Rainbow Awards 2017 - Lesbian Sci-Fi Category

Word Count: Click here to reveal20386 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Exposing secrets can be lethal. Crow has had his eye on baby-faced Shelton since the young man became part of the Wyverns, but Crow is a committed Dom and unsure that Shelton is ready, or willing, to become his submissive. Getting trapped together during a dust storm provides an opportunity to find out. When the dust settles, the winds have scoured the desert and uncovered a shallow grave full of bodies. Smuggling people across the border is big business and Crow knows that the traffickers will not want their gruesome secret revealed to the authorities. When Shelton is taken and used as collateral, Crow and the Wyverns have to decide just how far they are prepared to go to serve justice and save Shelton’s life.

Word Count: Click here to reveal85,000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay, Genderfluid (Click here to hide)

Summary: Fleeing New York City and an abusive partner, would-be writer Marc Nugent finds work at HomePort, the Provincetown mansion of Lola Staunton, a fabulously wealthy recluse. Aided by an attractive-but-unattainable artist and an all-too-available cross-dresser, Marc investigates accusations of rape and murder that have estranged Lola from a childhood friend for more than sixty years. Past and present converge when a long-lost journal reveals tales of infidelity, adultery, and passion that mirror the life Marc has recently abandoned. When his ex-lover arrives in search of revenge, Marc must confront his past, his notions of family, and his capacity for love.

Word Count: Click here to reveal98000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Ian Pierce is the chef and part owner of the hottest restaurant in Cincinnati, his chosen family is full of happy relationships, and the scruffy, snarky cop who has been haunting his dreams is one step closer to being in his bed. But everything comes crashing down when the past he narrowly escaped nine years ago comes to a deadly head. Hollis Banner was enamored of Ian at first sight. He’s kept his distance, knowing the gorgeous, self-confident man is out of his league. Yet there’s no standing aside when Boris Jagger escapes a raid. Jagger’s world has been nearly destroyed and this time, the crime boss is coming after Ian and his friends personally. Hollis will do whatever it takes to keep Ian safe as they escape to a safe house with a couple of Ian’s overprotective friends. And Ian finds himself in a race to unlock painful memories—memories containing information that could take down the very last of Jagger’s illegal operations forever.

Word Count: Click here to reveal17000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: In the first book of the series, Life Lessons, MPD detective Mac and high school teacher Tony decided that a closeted relationship was worth the risks and difficulties. Now, in this free short story, they are briefly separated for the holidays by Tony's trip to visit his family. Tony on a Florida beach contemplates the joys and stresses of their hidden life, while Mac in the Minnesota snow handles a murder case that hits close to home. And in the evening, over the phone, they try to reach each other with words. With bonus short story - Getting It Right - Life Lessons Valentines story 1.8. Total 17,000 words

Word Count: Click here to reveal36000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealBisexual, Gay, Questioning, Straight (Click here to hide)

Summary: A charming serial dater. A serious-minded entrepreneur. A bloody start to their new business venture. All it will ever be is a close friendship. That’s been Demetrius Singleton’s mantra for as long as he’s known his best friend, Cody Bower. It’s helped through the years as he’s watched Cody date practically every girl in town. Now several years out of college, Demetrius manages the business side of their brand new animal control service, Critter Catchers, while Cody acts as the idea man and finesses potential clients. When their first client is brutally murdered by a large unidentified animal, they have to act quickly to save their business reputation and stay out of jail. Demetrius is distracted by a handsome new town reporter, but Cody is wary of this new arrival’s intentions. And, quite possibly, a little bit jealous. But he doesn’t feel that way for Demmy… does he? No matter how they feel about each other, they will need to work together to uncover the truth about the gruesome murders in their small town of Parson’s Hollow before they end up victims of the beast themselves!

Word Count: Click here to reveal43000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealBisexual, Gay, Questioning, Straight (Click here to hide)

Summary: A struggling small business. An odd job opportunity. Two friends figuring out they may be something more. Demetrius and Cody stopped a murderous wolf man months ago, but that hasn’t done much to bring in jobs for their Critter Catchers business. Now, as the two best friends struggle to make ends meet, Demetrius also tries to find time to date Oliver, the new reporter at the Parson’s Hollow Herald, and Cody can’t help nitpicking about them. When veterinary student Agatha Tisdale approaches them with an odd case, they jump at the opportunity despite their misgivings. While Cody flirts with Agatha, Demetrius finds himself distracted by handsome farmer Reed Wilkes whose goats are being bled dry by something living in the woods around his farm. While working to identify the blood-drinking critter, however, Demetrius discovers he’s having to remind himself more and more often to keep Cody in the friend category of his mind and heart. And for his part, Cody is realizing he might be more than a little jealous of the relationship developing between Demmy and Oliver. But all of that must be set aside when farmer Wilkes goes missing and Cody, Demetrius, Oliver, and Agatha follow a bloody trail into the woods and come face-to-face with something as dangerous as the wolf man!

Word Count: Click here to reveal72000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealBisexual, Gay, Questioning (Click here to hide)

Summary: A family emergency far from home. A list of people gone missing. A long, simmering attraction that finally reaches a boil. When Demetrius flies to Florida to support his parents during his mother’s health scare, Cody is left to manage their Critter Catcher business alone. And feel guilty he didn’t go along to provide support. Finally unable to stay away, Cody heads to Florida with Demetrius’s Aunt Amelia. Demetrius is shocked they came to support him. And Cody is shocked about his powerful romantic feelings for Demetrius. But all that will have to wait as they are tragically yanked into another monster hunt. In the Everglades. During a tropical storm. If they live through this latest challenge, Cody and Demetrius will need to have a long overdue conversation about their future. It will change everything between them, forever.

Word Count: Click here to reveal95400 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Alan Baxter barely scrapes by working as a deejay in suburban Detroit. To make ends meet, he takes a job as an automobile repossession agent, and discovers his very first assignment is a car owned by his drug dealer ex-boyfriend. On top of that, a body is discovered in the trunk…by a cop. Soon Alan’s life is completely upturned as he is pulled into a mystery involving more bodies, a highly lethal new street drug, a mysterious man with a top hat and cane, raging dwarves, a house fire, a cranky police detective, and his crankier cat!

Word Count: Click here to reveal34650 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: When Kirk Stanford moves into his new home, strange things begin to happen. Messages appear in the steam on his mirror, warning him of a nameless threat. Then someone keeps breaking into his house, looking for something Kirk can't identify. With the help of his boyfriend, Damon, Kirk digs into the house's history, and discovers not just the previous owner's brutal murder, but threatening letters written to him from someone named Sam. As the intruder strikes again, Kirk and Damon find themselves fighting not only to solve the mystery, but to keep from being murdered themselves.

Word Count: Click here to reveal54500 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Bryson Franklin made bad choices in his past. When he inherits his grandparents' farm outside the small town of Willow River, however, he sees it as a chance for a fresh start. But patterns from his past resurface when Bryson takes up with Daniel Riggs, his bad boy neighbor, and he soon finds himself helping Daniel cover up a murder. After Bryson breaks things off with Daniel, the kindness and attention of handsome sheriff's deputy Sam LeClaire gives him hope, but when Daniel shows up on Bryson's doorstep a year later, will Bryson be able to resist temptation?

Word Count: Click here to reveal50,100 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: A small Western town quietly invaded, the residents bitten and turned in the night. A young man finally coming to terms with the immense and unusual power he wields. A friendship tested and evolving into something deeper. Vampires are taking over the frontier town of Belkin’s Pass, led by an ancient and evil vampire named Balthazar. No one has recognized the evil taking root… until tonight. Josh Stanton is a wanted man. He’s lived on the outskirts of the town’s social circles all his life, and, after a tragedy caused by his own hand, flees into Venom Valley, feeling he has no one to turn to for help. Not even Dex, his best friend and a man he secretly loves. Dex Wells has loved Josh for longer than he can remember. But as a town deputy, he’s torn between his feelings for Josh and his duty to the town. When Josh is in trouble, Dex races to Josh’s aid ahead of the Sheriff, needing to hear the truth about his situation… and perhaps confess the depth of his feelings. Glory, a half White, half Apache saloon girl, and the only survivor from the nighttime attack on the One-Eyed Rooster, strikes out on her own. She has no plan, yet, but vows to avenge those she’s left behind. Together, these three unlikely heroes must come together to fight back against the vampire Balthazar. If they fail, his evil will spread across the West and, eventually, the rest of the country.

Word Count: Click here to reveal49000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay, Straight (Click here to hide)

Summary: New lovers torn apart. An ancient evil consuming a small town. Unlikely heroes running out of time. Dex Wells, former deputy of the prairie town of Belkin’s Pass, has been taken captive by the wicked vampire Balthazar and held in the caves above Venom Valley. He knows he is being kept as bait, a way to lure Dex’s lover, Josh, into the caves in order to capture him. As Dex tries to escape, he realizes he’s not the only prisoner Balthazar keeps chained in those dark depths. Josh Stanton can raise the dead. It’s a power he’s always had within him but never understood. Now, he’s trying to become more skilled at wielding that power, and using it to battle Balthazar and rescue Dex. But there’s still a bounty on Josh’s head for a murder he did not commit, and he ends up back in Belkin’s Pass with Glory, a half White, half Apache former saloon girl watched over by a Native American spirit. Two members of the US Army arrive and, with no lawmen left in town, take Josh into custody. It’s up to Josh and Glory to convince these men the truth about their small town and find a way to save Dex before Balthazar turns him into a vampire as well.

Word Count: Click here to reveal78500 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay, Straight (Click here to hide)

Summary: A small mining town, lost. New lovers fighting for their future. An Army sergeant with secrets of his own. With Belkin’s Pass overrun by vampires and wolves, Josh Stanton, his lover, Dex, former saloon girl Glory, and US Army Sergeant Walker Maxwell, are forced to flee to the abandoned Fort Emmerick. There, they make plans to take the battle to Balthazar’s cave in order to stop his plot to turn every human into a vampire. But much stands in their way. Josh must learn to control his ability to raise the dead. The few survivors need to be trained to fight. And they will need a greater number of soldiers in order to triumph over Balthazar and the people he has turned. Their final, desperate battle will soon take place across the unforgiving landscape of Venom Valley, and the outcome will decide the fate of the entire country.

Word Count: Click here to reveal74000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: They say you can’t go home again, Adam Klay doesn’t intend to until the death of his father forces his return to Skagit, Washington. Cleaning up his father’s chaotic life was never on Adam’s bucket list. Worse, Adam finds himself inexplicably drawn to the elusive, terminally-clumsy, gorgeous, Micah Ryan. No way is he getting involved with someone from his hometown, he’s always insisted the best view of Skagit was in his rearview mirror. Micah Ryan has been coasting on auto-pilot since his family was killed in a car accident a decade earlier. He runs a web business and has an irritable cat. He hardly leaves his house, unless it is for his afternoon espresso. His world tips upside down when Adam Klay rolls into town. For the first time in years, he feels alive. Unfortunately, Micah’s return to the living has been noticed and is not appreciated. Will Adam and Micah be able to exorcise the ghosts of their pasts so they can embrace their future together? *This re-edited version does not significantly depart from the original, just better grammar.  

Word Count: Click here to reveal60,000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Trace has had a run of bad luck. He lost his job, his boyfriend of two years was cheating on him, and his apartment building burned right to the ground with all his worldly possessions. So Trace heads for the ranch owned by his aunt Lois. But before he arrives, Lois is in a terrible car accident that nearly takes her life, and Trace finds himself in charge of the ranch kitchen. Sounds simple enough and it's the least he can do for his recuperating aunt. Then Sawyer happens. Sawyer is his aunt's sexy straight ranch manager. Meeting the man should have been okay, except it was in the middle of his aunt's kitchen at five in the morning and Trace was nearly naked. Then the next day Trace proceeded to set his aunt's house on fire and the brooding Sawyer comes to the rescue. Not to mention Aunt Lois’s “accident” was actually attempted murder and it seems those same people want Trace dead, too. Looks like Trace’s luck followed him. How can Trace figure out who's trying to kill him AND keep Sawyer from finding out he's hot for the cowboy? He probably can’t. But he’s going to try.

Word Count: Information not available

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Gabe and Josh’s romantic dinner date to celebrate love and life takes a shocking twist when a man who’s presumed dead enters the restaurant. What Gabe learns that night and the days that follow sends the homicide investigation down a road full of sharp twists and dangerous turns. Josh is finally living the life he's always wanted. He has a man who loves him just the way he is and an exciting new career opportunity. All of that feels threatened when a mysterious neighbor moves into the neighborhood. Josh is convinced his presence is more than a coincidence and questions what fate has in store for the happy couple. Can Gabe find the balance between work and love or will his focus on justice put their harmony in jeopardy? Can Josh continue to overcome his insecurities or will they overshadow the beautiful life he’s building with the man he loves? Dyed and Gone to Heaven is the third book in the Curl Up and Dye Mysteries series. These books were written to be read in order. They contain sexually explicit material and are intended for adults 18 and older.

Word Count: Click here to reveal50000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: King Diagus of Blade Rain is in a bind. He is duty bound to produce a royal heir and the only way he knows that can happen is if he beds a woman. Definitely not his idea of Happily Ever After. In fact, far from it. Except instead of walking down the aisle with the princess he has arranged to marry, Diagus is off in the wilds of Claymoor Doom. But there’s a good reason. Rumor had it there was someone near Gray Valley with Diagus’s stark blue eyes. A possible relative and therefore an heir? Was there a chance he might not have to marry a woman, after all? Regrettably, Diagus finds no one matching the rumor’s description. What he does find is a heinous, black magic plot for murder and Diagus is the next on the list. Tama’s pregnant sister claimed to be carrying the child of a king. Not just any king. The mighty king of Blade Rain. She was determined to get out of the very poor house of Hilman and into the lap of luxury. But fate had its own agenda. Sadly, Tama must raise his nephew all by himself after his sister unexpectedly dies in childbirth. It’s not a problem, though. He loves Aydin as he loved his sister – with all his heart. However, Tama’s lazy and abusive father, Beourn, is angry and extremely disappointed. Being the grandfather of a crown prince, he was looking forward to moving to the castle and living a life of extravagance. With his daughter’s death, that was no longer possible. So, he does the unthinkable. He kidnaps Aydin with the intent of selling him to the rich and powerful king. Tama is stunned he would do such a thing and chases after Beourn to rescue Aydin. But he doesn’t get far before he is confronted with a beautiful man being viciously attacked. Of course Tama has to help. If he doesn’t the man will surely die. Except Tama quickly learns the man is far more than just someone in trouble. In fact, the man is a king and will change Tama’s life. Forever.

Word Count: Information not available

Character Identities: Click here to revealBisexual (Click here to hide)

Summary: Small but mighty—that could be Detective Nevin Ng’s motto. Now a dedicated member of the Portland Police Bureau, he didn’t let a tough start in life stop him from protecting those in need. He doesn’t take crap from anyone, and he doesn’t do relationships. Until he responds to the severe beating of a senior citizen and meets the victim’s bow-tied, wealthy landlord. Property manager and developer Colin Westwood grew up with all the things Nevin never had, like plenty of money and a supportive, loving family. Too supportive, perhaps, since his childhood illness has left his parents unwilling to admit he’s a strong, grown man. Colin does do relationships, but they never work out. Now he’s thinking maybe he won’t just go with the flow. Maybe it’s time to try something more exciting. But being a witness to a terrible crime—or two—was more than he bargained for. Despite their differences, Colin and Nevin discover that sparks fly when they’re together. But sparks are short-lived, dampened by the advent of brutal crimes, and Colin and Nevin have seemingly little in common. The question is whether they have the heart to build something lasting.  

Word Count: Information not available

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Todd Rifkin has sworn off love forever—until he loses his heart to a badly scarred rent boy and stumbles into a deadly game of cat and mouse with a brutal stalker out for revenge.   Struggling to make enough money to buy a friend’s bar and grill to fulfill a promise, Todd Rifkin vows to let nothing stand in his way. Nothing, that is, until a friend’s call for help. Bailing his friend out of trouble might cost Todd his dream. Now he is scrambling to make up the loss and reluctantly takes on the job of errand boy for his boss’ spoiled ex-lover.   Bliss Busby has no memory of the attack that scarred his face. Scared and reclusive, he has no interest in Todd’s intrusion into his life. No interest, that is, until somebody starts scattering cinnamon hearts at his door. Now Todd is the only one standing between Bliss and a mysterious stalker.   Years ago, Todd lost the love of his life in a violent twist of fate. After a night with a knife-wielding maniac, Bliss lost everything. Thrown together by circumstance, Todd and Bliss must unite to battle a hidden force from the past. As Bliss struggles to remember the attack that wrecked his life, and Todd struggles to save him from an attacker that is closer than either of them realizes, their reluctant friendship becomes a passionate love that just might have the power to heal their wounded hearts.   If they live.