Nightingale & Bly

State Trooper Sebastian Bly and his brother-in-law Billy Nightingale are called in to investigate a house fire that killed two young children. Suspicious details at the fire scene – and the discovery of a baby hiding underneath the porch – put them on the trail of a murderous mother and lead to Sebastian and his wife, Annie, raising baby Meredith without revealing her dangerous and frightening past. Meredith grows up to be a promising young ballerina – her ambitions fueled in part by the fictional history that Sebastian, Annie, and Billy have invented for her. But the truth threatens their charmed family circle as Merry's biological mother returns to finish what she started. Tabula Rasa is not only a gripping and entertaining crime novel but also a sensitive, warm exploration of the deeper issues of what defines a family and an individual.

Every small town has an eccentric or two, and Killdeer, New York, is no exception. Morgan Mason attracts more than a few stares when he drives through town on his ramshackle tractor wearing a skirt. His sister is mortified, his neighbor resents the Skirt Man's interference, and a local preservationist is horrified by Morgan's huge satellite dish. These minor small-town annoyances become more serious – and deadly – when the Skirt Man is killed in a tragic house fire during a benefit ballet performance starring Meredith Bly. Meredith's father, State Trooper Sebastian Bly, and her uncle, Fire Marshal Billy Nightingale, are called in to investigate what some say is a case of spontaneous human combustion. Charred wood and chair remnants at the fire scene lead Sebastian and Billy to uncover clues that reveal hidden conflicts and a shocking discovery that will change the lives of everyone in Killdeer. Bringing back the brave and imaginative family team from Tabula Rasa, author and fire investigator Shelly Reuben fans the flames of small-town passion and breathes life into an unusual local hero.