Hey, My Book’s a Finalist!

Very excited to let you know that A Storm of Doubts is a finalist in the YA novel category for the Selah Awards, which is handed out at the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference! My Christmas mystery short story, “A Rose from the Ashes”, which started my Rae Riley mystery series, was a finalist in the short story category in 2020. So I’m thrilled to be nominated for a novel this time. The winners will be announced at the conference at the end of May. I’m hoping to attend

A Storm of Doubts is my second novel. If you’d like to read the series in order, here’s the list.

#1 “A Rose from the Ashes” in Christmas fiction off the beaten path

Nineteen-year-old Rae Riley knows she needs to fulfill her late mother’s dying wish. But she needs even more to find her father. And the man who attacked her mother twenty years ago on Christmas Eve and left her to burn in an abandoned building. And if her father and the attacker are one and the same.

#2 A Shadow on the Snow

Nineteen-year-old Rae Riley can barely believe her gamble paid off. After spending seven months investigating the identity of her father and whether he tried to murder her mother, Rae has been accepted by her dad, Sheriff Walter “Mal” Malinowski IV, and his immediate family with open hearts. And for the first time in her life, Rae is making friends, jamming with three cute cops who play outlaw country music.But someone is leaving Rae threatening notes, reminding her of her late mother’s notorious past when Bella Rydell wrecked homes and lives during the few years she lived in rural Marlin County, Ohio. Fearing the threats will make Mal and his family reject her, Rae investigates the mystery on her own. But her amateur sleuthing may cost her the father she’s always wanted when the stalker changes targets and takes dead aim at Mal.

#3 A Storm of Doubts

Her dad said nothing could change their relationship. But what if he wasn’t her dad?

Summer gets off to a rocky start for twenty-year-old Rae Riley when the ex-wife of family friend Jason Carlisle claims their youngest child isn’t his and Rae’s con man uncle Troy returns to Marlin County, Ohio. Rae is already at odds with her father, Sheriff Walter “Mal” Malinowski, over her desire to help people in trouble. When she extends that help to Uncle Troy and Jason’s ex-wife, she and Mal clash even more.

Then the ex-wife disappears, and Jason and his brother Rick are two of the main suspects. As Rae and her Aunt Carrie, a private investigator hired to protect Jason’s kids, work to discover what really happened, Rae wrestles with Troy’s insinuations that she may be calling the wrong Malinowski “Dad.”

Bonus Story: “Bovine” in Ohio Trail Mix: Adventures and Inspiration along the Ohio Literary Trail

This story isn’t exactly part of the Rae Riley series because Rae only plays a minor role in it. But other members of her family take center stage when an elitist author comes to a backwater Ohio county, thinking he’s found the perfect setting for the perfect crime.