Riverbend, Arizona sits across the Colorado River across from Sagebrush, a Nevada town with a casino and not much else. The side-by-side towns were founded and grew from a rivalry between two families that grows deadly.
It's up to reporters Alfredo "Fred" Walker and Richard Walker to sort through the bodies. Walker is a hard-drinking Tex-Mex with four ex-wives and a lot of baggage, and the Tennessee-bred Lawrence brings tons of talent and a lot of attitude to the investigation. Blackjack dealer Diana Cook and her cocktail waitress friend Beth Rodgers join the investigation just as it's getting good.
DESERT STORIES is currently in first draft, so the final version will probably look nothing like this. Author Eric Pulsifer may deny ever writing these pages. Oh, well. Life's tough.
Adele knows she witnessed a murder - what she doesn't know is just how personal it is.
*****
A girl was brutally murdered in the basement of a sorority house in spring 2011. Adele Theroux thinks she saw the killer - and the killer definitely saw her. What she doesn't know is why this all happened and who this guy is. As she tries to solve the mystery from a distance while in witness protection, the connections keep getting weirder and more personal. Might she be able to relate to the killer in a way that no one else can? And what does that mean about her own psyche?
*2019 Watty Award for Mystery/Thriller*
[[word count: 50,000-60,000 words]]
Cover designed by April Alforque