Sean McPherson

In the village of Fairhaven-nestled between Washington state's Bellingham Bay and the Cascade Mountains, home to writers' retreat Pines & Quill,-friends and family have gathered for the union of Sean McPherson and Emma Benton. Sean has been working with the FBI and local police to help solve crimes, particularly murders bearing the mark of crime boss Georgio "The Bull" Gambino. Emma, who has just learned to walk again, has begun to feel at home and hopes to one day raise a family. But just as the festivities begin and corks fly, an explosion shatters everything, killing one and injuring others. From Bellingham to San Francisco and New Orleans, the chase is on to discover who's dead set on ensuring the newlyweds don't live happily ever after. The writers currently in residence at Pines & Quill include a vineyard owner, a Bryn Mawr College professor, a special education teacher accompanied by her seeing-eye dog, and an intuitive who can't-or won't-identify the killer. Gambino has a knack for finding people in even the most inaccessible places to do his bidding. Could one of the writers be on his payroll?

Crime boss Georgio Gambino abducts Sean "Mick" McPherson's pregnant wife, Emma, and his friend's two daughters and contracts to sell them and another group of women-some into forced labor, others as sex slaves, and a few for their organs. Gambino confines three best friends-Mick, a PI; Joe, a homicide detective; and Rafferty, an FBI special agent-to Pines & Quill writing retreat and pits them against each other with a warning: "Mick, if you try to save Emma, I'll kill Joe's daughters. Joe, if you try to save your daughters, I'll kill Emma. And Rafferty, if you help Mick or Joe, I'll kill your fiancée, Ivy." With help from the writers in residence-a fiction novelist, a retired maritime pilot, the granddaughter of a legendary pearl diver, and a prior mountain climber now double-amputee-Mick, Joe, and Rafferty manage to sneak away and journey to Mount Baker, where the captives await transport. Along the way, the three best friends learn the lines they'll cross to save the people they love.

For fans of Louise Penny and Robert Dugoni, Illusionist is a contemporary crime thriller where PI McPherson must choose between killing an author at a writing retreat in the Pacific Northwest or letting a college student die. When an illusionist joins the Pines & Quill writing retreat, one of the owners vanishes without a trace in the middle of everyone, but the surrounding would-be witnesses don't see or hear a thing. That's when crime boss Georgio Gambino makes a checkmate move against his nemesis, Sean McPherson. He forces a writer in residence to kill another writer and frame McPherson. In a video call, Gambino warns the writer, "If you don't follow orders, your daughter will die." Then, he pans the camera to prove access to her college dorm room. McPherson discovers that Carmine Fiore, Gambino's second in command, covets his boss role and is staging a coup. As Gambino's soldiers traffic drugs, weapons, and humans, Fiore plants incriminating evidence against the notorious Sureños gang. Can McPherson leverage that knowledge for a temporary truce and the gang's help? The writers in residence, a former NASCAR driver, a professional triathlete, an architect turned house flipper, and a world-renowned magician who may not be who she appears to be, band together with McPherson to create the illusion of a lifetime.

Burdened by the pressing weight of survivor's guilt, Sean McPherson, an ex-cop, is desperate for redemption. At Pines & Quill, a writer's retreat in the Pacific Northwest, he and his fiancée, Emma Benton, are planning their lives together. He wants to go back into law enforcement. She plans to walk again. Georgio "The Bull" Gambino, head of a Seattle-based crime family, has a long reach. Like cockroaches, his minions infiltrate even the most inaccessible of places to do his bidding. With Seattle to the south, the Canadian border a stone's throw to the north, and Bellingham Bay-a gateway to the Pacific Ocean-immediately to the west, Bellingham is the ideal location for the Gambino crime family to traffic drugs, weapons, and humans. But McPherson's in Gambino's way, which means he must be eliminated. The writers in residence at Pines & Quill include an Afghanistan War veteran, a professional photographer, a civil rights attorney, and a gourmet chef. But McPherson suspects that there's more going on than the joy of creating plot twists. Is one of them conspiring murder outside the pages of their manuscript?