For fifty-one weeks of the year, Heather McNeil loves her job as assistant to the director of the Washington DC Market Show Center. But the Gift and Home trade show, the biggest show of the year at the center, is a week-long nightmare. This year's version is worse than usual. Misplaced shipments, feuding exhibitors, and malfunctioning popcorn machines are all in a day's work. Finding the body of a murdered executive dumped in a trash bin during the show isn't. The discovery tips Heather's life into havoc. The police have reason to suspect the victim's wife killed him, but Heather doesn't believe it. She's gotten glimmers of an entirely different scenario and possible motive, but questioning exhibitors about the crime doesn't make her popular with them or with her employers. Still, other lives might be at risk, and if she doesn't identify the murderer before the show ends, the culprit could well remain free to kill again. Her only help comes from a company executive with ulterior motives and the Market Center's attractive new security officer, Scott Brandon. Despite opposition from some of the exhibitors, her employers, and the police, Heather seeks to expose the killer before the show ends. To solve the mystery she will have to risk what's most important to her and be prepared to fight for answers, her job, and possibly her life.

Would you recognize a serial killer if you talked to one every single day? Starving artist Lia Anderson doesn't. Neither do her friends at the Mount Airy Dog Park. Then the violent death of Lia's newly-ex boyfriend brings Detective Peter Dourson onto the scene. Peter penetrates the close-knit group of dog lovers with the help of Viola, the dead man's dog. The more he learns, the more he is convinced that someone is not who they seem. As his investigation uncovers secrets, a grieving Lia fights her growing attraction to the laid-back detective. Meanwhile, a killer hides in plain sight, desperate to stay ahead of the investigation-no matter who has to die. I'll post a new chapter every night. Enjoy!