Chris Culver

Someone shot the victim in her chest five times at point-blank range and left her to die in a cheap motel. Her purse has no ID, cell phone, or car keys, and her room is registered to Benjamin Franklin. She’s no drifter, though.

Detective Mary Joe Court sleeps with a shotgun beside her bed and a lovable bull mastiff at her feet. For the past 12 years, she’s hidden from a nightmarish past, but with every passing day, her scars fade, and her heart grows lighter....

Ash Rashid can't stand the thought of handling another death investigation. Until his niece's body is found in the guest home of one of his city's most wealthy citizens....

Ash is heading home to his wife and kids when he discovers a pair of bodies, shot execution style, in the front seat of a crashed vehicle....

When Detective Joe Court walks into the house for the first time, she already knows who the killer is: her department’s newest hire, Detective Reuben Terepocki. He claims he shot in self-defense, but Joe isn’t sure.

Detective Mary Joe Court’s home is her sanctuary. It’s the one place she can let her guard down and be herself. And her home has one rule: No murder allowed.

A volunteer found the body while searching the Missouri backwoods for a pair of missing teenagers. The victim was murdered and dumped at a camp site deep in the woods. It’s tornado season in central Missouri. The air is still. The sky is dark green.