Sonora Blair

A New York Times Notable Book: Cincinnati homicide detective Sonora Blair hunts a serial killer who's playing with fire in Shamus Award-winning author Lynn Hightower's chilling thriller. A single mother of two children and a police specialist with the Cincinnati Homicide Division, Sonora Blair is still awake in the middle of the night when the call comes in. Mark Daniels has been found in Mount Airy Forest handcuffed to the steering wheel of his car, doused with accelerant, and set on fire. As the hideously burned college student lies dying in the ER, he describes his killer: blond, female, and a total stranger. But Mark may not have been the intended victim. Evidence points to a sexual fixation on his older brother, Keaton, a teacher currently separated from his wife. Then the murderer - who has been dubbed "Flash" by the media - calls Sonora one night, taunting and mocking her. As the investigation heats up, the harassment continues. The female psychopath knows intimate details about Sonora's family and her past. As the criminal's monstrous plan becomes chillingly apparent, Sonora must risk everything to corner a cunning killer. Flashpoint is the 1st book in the Sonora Blair Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

This edge-of-the-seat thriller from Shamus Award-winning author Lynn Hightower plunges Cincinnati homicide detective Sonora Blair into a case with a high-profile suspect - and a chilling link to an unsolved murder. There are times when Sonora Blair hates being a cop - for instance, the day distraught husband and father of two Butch Winchell walks into the Cincinnati PD to report his wife missing. A mutilated corpse has been found along Interstate 75 between Kentucky and Tennessee, and the body parts might belong to Julia Winchell. Eight years earlier, when Julia was a student at the University of Cincinnati, she witnessed a murder. When the body disappeared, no one believed her. But Julia never forgot it, and was compiling notes and articles that would point the finger at a shocking suspect. District Attorney Gabe Caplan is Cincinnati's golden boy - a champion of the underdog, a defender of law and order, and a man shadowed by a tragic past. Eight years ago, his pregnant wife was brutally murdered, leaving behind their two-year-old daughter. Now Gabe is on the verge of scoring a major victory in a high-profile case. Sonora's gut tells her the two murders are linked, but how can she prove it when she's up against a DA who knows how to work the system - and whose current pregnant wife could be in mortal danger? Eyeshot is the 2nd book in the Sonora Blair Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

No killer goes unpunished in this strikingly original thriller set in Kentucky horse country and featuring Cincinnati homicide detective Sonora Blair. A fifteen-year-old girl and her horse have vanished from the local stable, leaving behind a splintered fence, a discarded riding boot, and blood - a lot of blood. Joelle Chauncey lived with her father and two siblings in a mobile home. Cincinnati Police Specialist Sonora Blair - who has kids of her own - knows she's looking at a parent's worst nightmare. The case has all the earmarks of abduction, even though it happened in broad daylight and no one seems to have witnessed a thing. Was someone after Joelle? Or were they pursuing her mare? When a body turns up at a dumpsite, the investigation becomes a hunt for a killer. As pressure mounts to solve the crime, Sonora struggles to hold everything together on the domestic and romantic fronts. Nothing can prepare her for the truth that will reverberate across many lives, culminating in more violence and unimaginable loss. No Good Deed is the 3rd book in the Sonora Blair Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Cincinnati homicide detective and single mother Sonora Blair puts everything on the line as she battles to find justice after a multiple-murder home invasion. At a house at the end of a cul-de-sac in the Cincinnati suburbs, widowed Police Specialist Sonora Blair and her partner, Sam Delarosa, discover the bodies of Carl Stinnet and two children. Hiding under the bed in the master bedroom is Carl's wife, Joy. The dying mother holds her unharmed infant daughter and keeps repeating the Hail Mary, claiming "the Angel" saved them. Joy's deathbed assertion that she saw two men and the Angel - along with differences in the victims' manners of death - make Sonora believe there were multiple killers. Two suspects are found and arrested, but Sonora doesn't get closure. She's sure there was a third person in that horrific crime scene, and she can't stop working the case, even after she's warned to walk away. Amid concerns about her own son and daughter, and her certainty that she'll never sleep soundly again, Sonora prepares to confront a murderer who's about to collect on one last IOU. The Debt Collector is the 4th book in the Sonora Blair Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.