C. J. Critt

A spectacular new novel, complete with high stakes, hot nights, murder and graft—not to mention car chases, car races, car explosions, and car—well, you get the idea

Alexandra Barnaby got the brains in her family. The little gray cells certainly bypassed Barney's younger brother, Wild Bill. Now Bill's missing, so Barney is dispatched to Florida in the middle of summer with the bugs and the heat and the bad-hair-day humidity.

For months he'd thought of her as the Mystery Woman, draped in a black velvet cloak, with outrageous red curls, flawless skin, and carrying a large, odd case — but the night David Dodd saw a helicopter drop a chunk of metal through the roof of his lovely neighbor's bedroom, he got to meet the formidable and delightful Katherine Finn at last! Rescuing damsels and fixing roofs was dangerous work, he told her, and at the very least he deserved

Hank Mallone knows he's in trouble when Maggie Toone agrees to pretend to be his wife in order to improve his rogue's reputation. Will his harebrained scheme to get a bank loan for his business backfire once Maggie arrives in his small Vermont town and lets the gossips take a look?

Maggie never expected her employer to be drop-dead handsome, but she's too intrigued by his offer to say no . . . and too eager to escape a life that made her