Francesca Vierling Mystery

From Anthony and Agatha Award-winning author of the Dead End Job mysteries-the first novel in a gritty series featuring a no-nonsense female journalist who follows her stories wherever they may lead…especially if they lead to big trouble. As a columnist for the St. Louis City Gazette, Francesca Vierling is a six-foot-tall beauty with brains and a talent for finding unusual and interesting subjects. The colorful people of her city provide her with all the inspiration she can handle, and her readers love her smart, streetwise style-even if her stuffy, less-than-appreciative bosses never seem to. Her work suddenly becomes all too personal when two of her favorite local characters die one after another. And for Francesca, there are too many odd ends for both deaths to be a coincidence. Driven by grief, anger, and the specters of her own past, she sets out to find out why the men were murdered, even if everyone else thinks she's chasing shadows. But there's one person out there who knows for certain that Francesca is onto something. That she's getting close to revealing a secret they've already killed to keep. And that if she keeps digging, they're going to have to kill Francesca too… Note: The author has made some minor revisions to the original text for this edition of the book.

From Anthony and Agatha Award-winning author of the Dead-End Job mysteries-a gritty series featuring a no-nonsense female journalist who follows her stories wherever they may lead…especially if they lead to big trouble. St. Louis City Gazette columnist Francesca Vierling has scored a ticket to the Leather and Lace Bikers' Society Ball, one of the highlights of the social calendar. The organizers of the ball would prefer the event be considered a low-light, however, and have done everything they can to rough up the affair and deter the RUBs-Rich Urban Bikers who can't tell a Harley Hog from a Holstein heifer-from showing up. A little grittiness can't stop ultra-fashionable socialite Sydney Vander Venter from making an appearance. She's the talk of the town thanks to an impending divorce from her ultra-wealthy husband. But after spending the evening making moves on a few too many married men, she's told to hit the road. When Sydney's body is found ditched in a back alley, Francesca finds herself on a hunt for a murderer that takes her into the lives of St. Louis's hardcore biker gangs and the prim and powerful elite. But she soon learns that those very different worlds have one rule in common… If you don't belong, you don't survive for long. Note: The author has made some minor revisions to the original text for this edition of the book.

From Anthony and Agatha Award-winning author of the Dead-End Job mysteries-a gritty series featuring a no-nonsense female journalist who follows her stories wherever they may lead…especially if they lead to big trouble. Francesca Vierling is always on the lookout for new fodder for her human-interest column in the St. Louis City Gazette. So she couldn't be happier when a story unfolds in her own neighborhood. The grand-if slightly run-down-old houses of the South Side have become highly coveted overnight and renovators have sought to spruce them up. But one renovator-known as Caroline the Rehab Wonderwoman-is a little overzealous and has been making more than home improvements. She has enemies all over the South Side, from disgruntled neighbors to intruding drug dealers to anyone who she considers not up to her standards. When those enemies start turning up dead, Caroline comes under suspicion-that is, until her own lifeless body is found with a gaudy pink flamingo lawn decoration planted in her chest. With that many murders in a row, it doesn't take Francesca long to discover that a tangled web of vendettas, backbiting, and gossip lies beneath the freshly painted facades. Note: The author has made some minor revisions to the original text for this edition of the book.

From Anthony and Agatha Award-winning author of the Dead-End Job mysteries-a gritty series featuring a no-nonsense female journalist who follows her stories wherever they may lead…especially if they lead to big trouble. Columnist Francesca Vierling thought she had it tough dealing with the cutthroat office politics at the St. Louis City Gazette. But stressors in the newsroom reach new heights when her dear mentor Georgia is diagnosed with cancer and Francesca offers to hide her illness from their boorish boss. When Francesca goes to pick up Georgia from treatment, she is horrified to find the staff shot dead and a distraught Georgia the only survivor. The crime is bloody, shocking, sensational-and just the kind of story that would allow Francesca to break free from her oppressive employers. All she has to do is solve the crime. The story quickly grows out of control when a doctor is killed in the same building as the massacre. And then another. And another… Because the killer isn't just out for blood-they're out for revenge. And Francesca is about to get in their way… Note: The author has made some minor revisions to the original text for this edition of the book.