Carol Potenza – författare

Spirit Daughters: Book 3 in the Tony Hillerman prize winning Nicky Matthews series

A Daphne Du Maurier 2023 WINNER in Mystery & Suspense!

Her mother''s unexpected return is the opening the killers need.

When Police Sergeant Nicky Matthews investigates a ruthless murder, she discovers the victim is connected to a powerful tribal fertility medicine linked to her father''s mysterious disappearance and death. But when her father died, the identity and location of the plant that produced the pivotal compound was lost. Or was it?

Determined killers are now searching for her mother, who holds the key to the rare plant and untold riches to whoever rediscovers it. Nicky is determined to protect her mother at all costs-then, the unthinkable happens. In a desperate race, Nicky and her friends track the murderers into the New Mexico high country in the depths of winter, where the suspense builds to a heart-stopping climax.

With danger and action at every turn, Spirit Daughters is a thrilling tale of murder, redemption, forgiveness, and family.

Can solving a mysterious poisoning save her career? Oh, and lead her to a long-lost buried treasure? Wait. AND thrust her into the arms of true love?

Ice Age paleontologist and poisons expert Myrna P. Lee isn''t a team player. Not because she doesn''t want to be. She''s just terrible at it. At least, that''s what every one in her lab says. Even her dog, the amazing William Tell, gives her attitude.

Maybe she has a hard time trusting because of past betrayals by people she''s loved the most.

So, it''s just fine with her when she''s dispatched to a remote billionaire''s ranch in Northern New Mexico tasked with solving a mysterious environmental poisoning. Besides, there''s a secret mammoth kill site on the ranch she desperately hopes will supply enough data so that her megafauna poisons grant won''t be rescinded for lack of progress. Myrna is determined to complete her commission, gather her mammoth info, and save her faltering career-all by herself.

Maybe she''s used to being alone and doesn''t need anything from anyone, no siree.

Until a handsome cowboy, assigned as her minder, moseys up to her side and sets her heart pounding, and a motley bunch of ranch hands embrace her as part of their found family.

Maybe that "alone" part of her life is in the past.

When she and William Tell stumble onto a decades old unsolved murder, the handsome cowboy tells her it''s linked to a long-lost treasure and the mammoth kill site. And it''s hard to stay focused on solving the poisonings when everything she discovers places her in the sights of villains who don''t care who they hurt in pursuit of the treasure.

Then betrayal hits Myrna from all sides, and her world shatters into teeny, tiny pieces. She has a choice: retreat back to being alone or fight for her happiness.

But questions remain.

• Will Myrna solve the mysterious poisoning?

• Will she figure out who committed the long-ago murder?

• Will she find the treasure before the bad guys do?

• Will she pick up the pieces of her broken heart and forgive?

And just how will she use those hand grenades she found on her quest for the treasure?

If you like stubborn smart heroines afraid to love, rugged cowboys with slow and sexy smiles who get caught in their own web of seduction, and a small dog who surprises the heck out of people when he''s picked up, then you''ll love Sting of Lies.