Emily Locke

"A winner! Clever, contemporary, and oh-so-savvy-Emily Locke is genuinely charming! Her brains, her humor and her heart make DEAD LIFT another fast-paced page-turner"-HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN, Agatha Winning author of Prime Time Single mom Emily Locke is building a new life with her daughter. Relocated to Houston she put her career on hold to work part-time for her private investigator friend, Richard Cole. It's a nice balance between work and family until Emily finds out she's been working for the attorney who defended her husband's killer. The discovery nearly destroys her friendship with Richard, but Emily resists abandoning socialite client Claire Gaston, who awaits trial for the murder of a local plastic surgeon. Claire has been leading a wildly unconventional life and passing around access to her home and assets like popcorn. Should she be condemned for bad choices? Emily, haunted by her own, doesn't think so. Meanwhile, Emily's wild-child friend Jeannie, in town for a visit, sees a chance for Emily to loosen up when a mysterious note leads her into a daring undercover ruse at a high-brow ladies' health club. Emily fakes conformity with Houston's elite debutantes and trophy wives in a surreal fitness subculture where things, and people, are seldom what they seem. At this gym, "killer workout" takes on a whole new meaning.

Seventeen-year-old Matt Foley has a typical set of problems: feeling alienated from his perpetually perky family, struggling to focus on classes when sports seem far more interesting, chafing at the slow pace of life in his small Virginia town. The usual. Until his coach and mentor is killed at a tae kwon do tournament. During a sparring match, Bobby Davis, a baby-faced stranger from Richmond, crushes the coach's larynx with a powerful spinning hook kick. To the police, it looks like a tragic accident. To Matt, it looks like deliberate murder. A few of his friends agree, including the attractive but puzzling Graciana Cortez, editor of the school paper. Matt knows it doesn't make much sense for teenagers to investigate a murder, but if he doesn't do something, who will? Matt sneaks off to Richmond, following a lead to an illegal fight club, where he watches Davis easily defeat a string of opponents. Barely escaping the club without a fight himself, Matt nonetheless persists in his investigation, even though his search for answers brings him into conflict with his school, the police, and his parents. He wants to improve his self-defense skills-so he, along with Graciana, joins a krav maga class, taught by a man who becomes his new mentor-because Matt can't escape the feeling that, before all this is over, he'll have to face Bobby Davis himself.