White Dunes

FIRST PRIZE WINNER OF FIREBIRD BOOK AWARD! This cross-genre fiction novel is for fans of melodrama and noir. The story appeals to both men and women and features gangsters pitted against a female detective. Murder and violence are rife in the desert city of White Dunes, California, where gangsters run a seedy underworld of sex trafficking and vice. Detectives secretly record a conversation between a crooked judge and a hit man hired to murder two thugs. Police arrest both men, but the victims' bodies are missing, and the killer won't confess. The case stalls when the judge dies in jail from a fatal "accident."
Serenity Bower arrives in White Dunes with her daughter and abusive partner, Bill. Serenity's dreams for a better life get dashed when Bill becomes embroiled with the town's gangsters. Days later, headlines announce the disappearance of a married couple.
As Detective Viola Hendricks investigates and pieces together clues about each incident, coincidence and fate uncover a bombshell. People's lives on both coasts get changed in ways they could never have predicted.