June Whyte – författare

A woman running from her traumatic past. A man who''s still grieving for the wife he lost eight years ago...

When Kiah Stanton drives through the gateway of Windsong racing stables, she''s carrying more baggage than a freight train. Vulnerable, yet resolved to uncover her inner warrior princess, she''s determined to make a new life for herself - and never trust another man. In fact, the only male Kiah wants in her life is Jet, the equally traumatized horse she saved from the meat-man at the horse sales.

After losing his wife eight years ago, single father and racehorse trainer, Jack Sullivan, is definitely not looking for a relationship. He''s too busy training racehorses and caring for his eight-year-old daughter, plus, no woman, no matter how attractive, could ever replace the wife he adored. So, what is it about the vulnerable, but gutsy woman he rescues at a horse sale and then later discovers on his doorstep? A woman whose courage and beauty stirs the long-dead ashes of his burnt-out heart?

Can two broken people get a second chance at love while battling their past and dealing with the everyday ups and downs of a professional racing stable in a small rural town called Shadow Creek?

When Emily and Maggie arrive at Kangaroo Downs to officiate at the opening of its new race-track, they expect to find the usual friendly ambiance characteristic of all small country towns - not the Chief Steward, their very first client, seated behind an ''engaged'' sign in the local diner''s restroom - deader than last week''s news.

Not everyone is happy about the new race-track in Kangaroo Downs. Unexplained accidents have been happening at the track. Like workmen falling off sabotaged ladders, the starting gates malfunctioning, an administrator getting electrocuted as he tested the two-way radio in the stewards'' room, broken glass found scattered on the track and the caretaker''s tractor up and disappearing overnight.

With a deranged murderer on the loose, all Emily and Maggie want to do is complete their assignment and hit the road again. That is - until Emily discovers her car stripped of its wheels and CANCELLED written in red paint on the windshield. Angrier than a couple of bees stuck in a vegemite jar, both Emily and Maggie are determined to unearth the identity of the saboteur.

But are the saboteur and the killer the same person? What happens when they find another dead body inside the starting-gates at the track? Will Emily and Maggie find answers to these questions before the first race on Opening Day?

Or will the two reluctant sleuths be the next casualties on the killer''s Cancelled list?

When Emily and Maggie are hired to work at a national showjumping clinic in the little outback town of Dingo Creek, they are plunged into the middle of a seething atmosphere of team rivalry, where no one is who they appear to be.

Naturally there''s competition between riders, but it seems like the arrogant, Jeremy Taggart will stop at nothing - sex, sabotage or stealing - to gain a place in the Australian squad. That is, until Jeremy doesn''t turn up for an important training session. And when Emily and Maggie go hunting for him they soon discover his chances of making the team have now dropped to a very cold zero...

The week leading up to Christmas should be fun, but when mobile veterinarians Dr. Emily Harrison and Dr. Maggie Post encounter an angry arachnid as big as a small dog, they decide it''s no fun at all - especially as the eight-legged creepy-crawly is found guarding a dead body.

Who hated the bullying agent enough to kill her? Her boss, Edward G. Peters, the best-selling horror author whose modus operandi in his latest book is identical to the crime? Or the author''s cook who is protecting a shady secret between her boss and the deceased? Or the edgy young cleaner who''s living a lie, the TV guy with a hidden agenda, or the scruffy burglar caught breaking into Emu Lodge the day before the murder?

Once again, the two amateur sleuths find themselves deep in the middle of another baffling mystery. However, when Maggie''s daughter gets caught up in the killer''s sights and Fat Santa threatens to blow them away if they don''t butt out, both Maggie and Emily wonder if maybe the stakes are too high.

That is, until Maggie wakes to find herself surrounded by spiders...

Abigail Truelove believes her champion standard smooth dachshund, Chloe, has a lock on the Ladies Kennel Club Best in Show trophy. That is, until she discovers her nemesis, Petra Sullivan, has been sleeping with the show judge...and with Abi''s boyfriend. Understandably, Abi''s upset. In fact, she might even have threatened bloodthirsty consequences.

In front of a show ring full of witnesses.

So, later, when Abi trips over Petra''s dead body in a dark alley, she knows she must find Petra''s killer. If not, she could end up showing her wiener dog in prison.

To catch a killer, Abi enlists her two best friends to help: Molly, a virgin romance-writer and Dana, a ball-busting mother of two. Together, they revive their high school sleuthing group, The Gumshoe Chicks. When the list of suspects becomes longer than a week''s grocery list, the Chicks quickly discover that sleuthing isn''t as easy as the Nancy Drew books portray.

The local dog show world is full of angry wives, irate competitors and a Mick Dundee type guy with a yard full of man-eating crocodiles-all cheated, tricked or dumped by Petra. Which one would stupidly waste their big-ticket luxury dog leash for a murder weapon? The same one who is now determined to collar Abi?

Three dog loving sleuths. A dead body. An innocent man jailed for murder.

When Dana Fox, feisty mother of two, discovers the dead body of a bullying poodle breeder at the dog show, the Chicks are pushed deep into the middle of another mystery. The wrong man is in jail and it''s up to Dana, leader of the pack, Abigail Truelove, owner of Pampered Pooch, and Molly Gibson, a shy romance writer, to collar the real killer.

Solving this mystery isn''t as easy as depicted in the Agatha Christie books shelved in the Chicks'' local library. Far from it. Especially when the victim is the most hated man in the show world and the suspect list reads like an open phone directory.

Dealing with a wacky fortune teller, a hot gym instructor, homeless guys armed with

shopping trolleys, Queen Bee of the Yummy Mummies and an English Lord called Dumpling would keep even the inimitable Poirot himself awake at nights.

And just when they think they''ve cracked the case - another dead body says otherwise...

When Molly Gibson, sensual romance writer but shyest and most insecure member of the Gumshoe Chicks, finds more than she bargained for in the Driscoll''s dog trailer, the Chicks - Molly, Abi and Dana - swap show ring etiquette and grooming mitts for some deadly serious sleuthing.

Their only clues are the blood splattered dog-grooming scissors found buried in a fellow competitor''s chest, a husband blackmailing his wife, and a death threat written on a Betty Boop writing pad.

As the Chicks investigate, they discover several suspects at the dog show have something to hide. Was the dead man really a serial Don Juan, intent on taking every female show competitor over 30 to bed? Did the ostentatious poodle exhibitor lose his temper, decide to teach the victim a lesson, and go too far? Or, was the female judge with the Gucci boots angry when the victim threatened to expose her infidelity?

And who is that bad-boy biker with the sea-blue eyes and kissable lips?

Molly, who has enough trouble resolving conflict in her fictional stories is freaked out at the prospect of confronting a real-life antihero. A villain who''s killed not once, but twice, and if she doesn''t apply her creative flair to unearthing the culprit, could easily kill again.

Just when the Chicks think they know who the murderer is, Molly stumbles over another clue proving them all wrong.

With only a geriatric chihuahua and a hairless broom to work with, will she live to pass this message on to the others?

Professional greyhound trainer, Kat McKinley, is a soft touch. When she''s talked into having sex with a guy who''s just not her type, a romp so pathetic it registers minus ten on a sex-to-die-for scale, she decides to end the relationship. When Kat wakes the next morning to find Mr Wham-Bam sprawled beside her, a knife embedded in his left nipple, she wishes she''d ended the relationship sooner.

After that wake-up call, Kat figures life can''t nose-dive any lower. But with a killer out to get her, the police suspecting her of murder, a misbehaving greyhound, a complicated love triangle and a vicious kidnapper who threatens to cut out a child''s tongue if her dog, Big Mistake wins his next race, maybe it can...