The scrappy lead columnist for the Chicago Journal normally writes about politics, and, rather than shying away from fights, she tends to pick them, but every once in a while, Deuce’s search for a good story brings her face to face with more trouble than she was really looking for. In Award-winning journalist Jean Heller’s first action-packed mystery featuring the intrepid sleuth, Deuce learns in short order that if you mess with organized crime, you have to be tough—and you’d better be as much detective as reporter. The second volume finds Deuce on the wrong side of the NSA, the FBI and the CIA. At a minimum. Exhausted by these two white-knuckle investigations in one year, Deuce is content to focus on her column until she gains information that could help catch the relentless arsonist whose Burning Rage is consuming Chicago. The Ill Wind sweeping Chicago threatens to blow in a bloody mob war. Fans of hard-boiled female protagonists should hang onto their fedoras—this one’s an action-packed extravaganza!THE SOMEDAY FILEDeuce uncovers a series of crimes committed over nearly six decades, and, as her human interest story morphs into a hard-boiled, action-packed mystery, she finds herself dead center in a storm of threats and reprisals from the mob. Fortunately, she has many allies, but at least one of them, she suspects, is hiding a secret–- corruption? Murder? The veteran reporter knows: if you’re talking Chicago crime scene—it’s probably both.THE HUNTING GROUNDThe grisly discovery of a human bone while Deuce is out for a hike with handsome arson investigator Mark Hearst leads to the unearthing of a vast burial field, a human trafficking ring, and international intrigue. The pull-no-punches columnist—and meticulous detective—keeps turning up information, but the Journal’s lawyer appears daily, bringing warnings about “national security.” What, Deuce seethes, could be a greater matter of national security than the safety of the city’s children, who are being kidnapped and murdered?BURNING RAGEWhole blocks of Chicago real estate are falling to an arsonist, but no one knows why and everyone suspects the worst—terrorism. But no terrorist group has claimed the mayhem. From the moment she hears the earliest details of the first fire, her detective-instincts say the pieces don’t fit, and every other instinct tells the hard-hitting reporter she can’t walk away from the story—even though she knows she’ll regret it.ILL WINDIn the cold blustery dawn, reporter Deuce Mora stands looking up at a body swinging from the window of a downtown Chicago federal building. The dead man was her friend, and she knows to a certainty that this is not, as the police claim, a suicide. But the death scene was triple-locked–—from the inside.Deuce suspects his death is tied to his investigation of organized crime, a viewpoint that is strengthened by the arrival in Chiago of a Washington reporter who's been following the story. They work the story together as it erupts into a bloody mob war in the streets.WHO WILL LIKE IT: Fans of Chicago private investigators VI Warshawski and Libby Fischer Hellman’s Georgia Davis, get-the-story-or-die reporters like Hank Philippi Ryan’s Jane Ryland and Kelly Lange’s Maxi Poole, hard-boiled female protagonists like Marcia Muller’s Sharon McCone and Laura Lippman’s Tess Monaghan; and anyone who admires tough-minded women sleuths who’re good in a fight.

    The bureau’s only chance is a rogue agent who flies by her own wings and will stop at nothing to make sure justice is achieved.It is said, “Fight fire with fire.” The bureau knows, “Fight sin with SIN.”Her name says it all: Tempting―Dangerous―Deadly.

    A young woman in a remote farmhouse has called 911 on an intruder and is killed. The clue path leads Healy to several suspects, but when the victim’s brother opens fire on the cops, the department is ready to close the case. Healy persists with his own investigation, leading him into the world of human trafficking where an escort service is used by government officials. Healy tracks a potential killer, who is holding a child hostage. But the case is not yet closed, and another killer must be brought to justice.

    Desperate to prove she is still relevant, the fiftysomething accepts a shady job offer from Pierre Barton, secretive billionaire owner of Barton Pharmaceuticals. Isolated in a facility outside London, she agrees to test a new top-secret product guaranteed to make her look thirty years younger. Anna is starting to look on the outside the way she feels on the inside: ageless. But she soon discovers that her predecessor died under mysterious circumstances, leading her to research just who stands to gain—and lose—with this miraculous product. When Pierre drops dead in front of her, she takes off on a dangerous journey across Europe hoping to stay alive long enough to uncover the truth.With the hard-won knowledge that younger isn’t always better, Anna is determined to escape and reclaim her life before it’s too late.

    It’s enough to make a scrapbooker see red. Determined to save the man she loves, Kiki vows to track down the real killer.BOOK #8 – GROUP, PHOTO, GRAVETHE WEDDING WAS WONDERFUL, EXCEPT FOR THE CORPSE IN THE PUNCH BOWL. Kiki has knocked herself out to make her mother-in-law’s wedding picture perfect, but a dead body is always a disaster. When the bride gets blamed, Kiki relies on her nose for clues as she sniffs out the killer.BOOK #9—KILLER, PAPER, CUTA HALLOWEEN HACK JOB CUTS DOWN ONE OF KIKI’S FRIENDS. When an event at a spooky historical mansion becomes a venue for a stabbing, Kiki refuses to let the slasher get away with carving up one of her dearest friends.BOOK #10 – HANDMADE, HOLIDAY, HOMICIDEA PREGNANT KIKI WATCHES IN HORROR AS A WOMAN DIES UNEXPECTEDLY IN A HOLIDAY CLASS. When one of Kiki’s besties is unfairly blamed, the intrepid (and very pregnant) amateur sleuth pulls up her big girl maternity panties and discovers someone has been not nice and very naughty indeed. BOOK #11 – SHOTGUN, WEDDING, BELLSKIKI’S WEDDING IS INTERRUPTED BY GUNSHOTS AND HER NEW HUSBAND GOES DOWN. Two weeks from her due date, a pregnant Kiki traces the hired hitman to a “gentleman’s club.

    The loathed customers are dealt the poor treatment they seem to deserve, bad rap music is played loudly, and The Rat is killed often enough to stem his immortality. And the insane homeless regulars -- like drunken Little Johnny Redbeard -- keep life interesting.But when a rival tricks the crew into thinking that the deli's closure is imminent, they do the only logical thing: instead of giving up, they decide to go out in a blaze of glory, handing their customers the humiliation and abuse that the pesky social contract had previously forbidden. But as insults turn to assaults and snide remarks turn to harassment and pro wrestling moves, a strange thing happens. Business goes up -- way up -- as people come back in droves, begging for more.But the flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long, and as pop-culture welcomes the parody musical group "The Bialy Pimps" and its frivolous merchandising machine -- and as the crew pushes to see how much bad behavior society will accept -- the violent road to fame begins to feel like a runaway train, out of control and headed for destruction…The Bialy Pimps is a tale that could only be spun by the twisted, vaguely profane mind of outspoken blogger Johnny B. Truant. Combining hilarity with questions about conformity and whether the tail or the dog is the one doing the wagging, this story can't help but raise a question for the reader: If the rest of your friends decided to submit to the Face-Kicking Machine, would you do it too?

    But now her uncle's heart is failing and she has to convince him that surgery will save his life. She never dreamed the first thing she'd see when she stepped off the plane would be her biggest nightmare...the one man she'd never stopped loving.Beau Gentry had the fever for two things: the rodeo and Mandy Morgan. But for Beau, loving Mandy was complicated by his father's vendetta against her uncle. This led him to make the hardest decision of his life and he can still see the bitterness and hurt on Mandy's face. All these years it has killed him to think Mandy had forgotten him and moved as far away as possible from him. But now they're back in Texas, and he's going to do all he can to win back her love.HIS HEART FOR THE TRUSTINGEver since Mitch Broader set foot in Texas, he dreamed of owning his own ranch. Now that he's bought a share in the Double T Ranch, he's one step closer to the dream. Then his past greets him in the form of a baby basket, complete with infant and birth certificate naming him as the father. He can't change diapers and work toward his dream at the same time.When Sara Lightfoot, "Miss Hollywood" in Mitch's eyes, rescues him with her particular knack for handling his precocious son, he hires her on the spot as a temporary nanny. No matter how much Sara's dark eyes and warm heart make this bachelor think of making their arrangement permanent, she's made it perfectly clear she has other plans that don't include him or his dreams.Sara Lightfoot never thought she'd return to her home on the reservation. Now she plans to reclaim the life she left by going back to the reservation as a Native American storyteller, teaching the Apache children stories of their culture. She didn't expect Mitch Broader's sexy smile or job offer as a live-in nanny to derail those plans. After all she's been through to come home, can she open up her heart once again to love?THE MORE I SEEAs a top-notch cutting horse trainer, Cody Gentry was riding high until he lost his eyesight after a freak chemical accident. Unable to see the hand in front of his face, never mind the horse or cattle he trained, he knows his life is over and slips deep into depression. His whole future hinges on the success of an eye surgery that could give him his old life back.When guide dog trainer, Lyssa McElhannon, arrives on his ranch like Florence Nightingale coming to save him, he wants no part of her or her guide dog. But something about Lyssa's musical laugh coupled with her tenacity digs under his skin and won't let go. Having been blind most of her life, Lyssa understands the paralyzing fear Cody feels after losing his vision. But she refuses to let the stubborn cowboy waste his life away sitting in a chair when she knows first-hand that a good guide dog can change his world. She just needs one month to prove it to him.Falling in love with Cody was not part of Lyssa's plan, nor was having him open her eyes to see that there was a whole lot of living she'd been missing.

    It's been five years since the idyllic oceanside town of Port Elspeth was rocked by tragedy. Shortly after their high school graduation, Evangeline Maddingly, daughter of one of the town's wealthiest old-money families, and Oliver Prescott, son of one of the town's wealthiest new-money families, were found dead in an isolated cabin in the woods outside of town. The circumstances surrounding their untimely deaths are murky at best, thanks in large part to a coroner with connections to the town's founding families and a sweeping effort from those in power to shut down any negative publicity that could harm the reputation of their pristine community.Five years later, a small group of strangers gather to create jewelry for one of Port Elspeth's many fundraisers. Before long, friendships are forming and old secrets are being revealed. Along with solving the mystery of how to make a perfect pair of chandelier earrings or cabochon necklace, these unlikely friends find themselves at the heart of solving the murders that took place half a decade earlier.

    Her plan takes a wrong turn when she finds Veronica, her twenty-year-old housekeeper and daughter of her beloved nanny, Lola, hovering over the dead body of octogenarian Randolph Brentwood, the fifth richest man in the world. Maple has never been a warm and fuzzy type of family person, and the last thing she wants to do in her final months of life is deal with Veronica’s mess. But long ago Maple made a promise to Lola that she’d always look out for her “little sister” Veronica. Still, the stubborn Maple, hardened from her own personal loss, resists involvement until she learns that Veronica is pregnant with Lola’s grandchild, an heir to the Brentwood estate. To make good on her promise to Lola, Maple vows to help Veronica. With the assistance of Michael, a handsome and savvy PI, they journey up and down the East Coast, dodging the authorities, a shady lawyer, a cold-hearted hit man, and the powerful widow, Mrs. Brentwood. As Maple’s bitterness about spending her last days saving Veronica dissipates and her friendship with Michael develops, she realizes that on the way to death, she’s found something she’s never had—life. (PLEASE NOTE: This is the Author's Women's Fiction Debut. It is NOT a Romance. Further, this book touches on serious subjects that may affect more sensitive readers.)

    

    

    

    During the crash of 1987 when Zach’s bagman, Jason, facesbankruptcy, his high-heeled wife, Sarna, learns to trade in order to save their mansion fromforeclosure. As the lives of these two women intersect, Remy falls in love with Ken Baldwin,never imagining how their careers will collide. Sarna begins a steamy affair with another traderwho turns out to be an undercover agent for the FBI during its probe into trading infractionsat the Chicago exchanges. When Jason’s clerk is pummeled, along with those investors whomisplaced their money with their faith, he and Sarna create a bold, sexy scheme to save Remyand rid the Exchange of those who try to get away with murder.Kirkus says of Trade Secrets:Rozner’s debut novel peeks into the high-powered world of insider trading.Hoping to discover more about her father’s mysterious death in a car crash, Remy Masterman enters the secretive, male-dominated world of stock trading, where she learns to assert herself and value her femininity. Readers will be captivated by her journey, and also by the men whom she falls in love with and the conflicted, sometimes erotic relationships that develop between them. When Sarna, the high-strung wife of a fellow trader, joins the Chicago Stock Exchange, Remy at first feels as though she’s been displaced as the sole female at the Exchange. However, the women’s lives intimately intersect as a striking female friendship is born. With multiple storylines and finely tuned characters, the elegantly fashioned novel amounts to more than its pieces would suggest. Rozner skillfully creates complex, provocative characters, with particularly strong female leads. Women call the shots; Rozner subtly indicates that, although the stock exchange appears to be a man’s world, women possess an intoxicating, seemingly irresistible power: their allure. At times, however, the vivid, sometimes gratuitous sex scenes may distract readers from the well-crafted plot. Female characters—specifically Sarna and Rosa—utilize sex to achieve their goals, with men like putty in their hands. For instance, in one explicit scene, Sarna convinces her husband to let her trade stocks simply by having sex with him. For the most part, though, shrewd, sharp-witted intelligence parallels the steamy sensuality. Fans of Fifty Shades of Gray (2011) will approve.A smart, sexy debut.

    She is held captive in her kidnapper's basement apartment, summoned upstairs once a week for a chaste dinner. But will his kindness last, and more importantly, why isn’t anyone looking for her? Lillian’s story is interwoven with that of Nathan, a NYPD officer, who is intrigued by Lillian’s disappearance- how can a young woman be gone for two weeks before a Missing Person Report is filed? Local police believe Lillian has voluntarily abandoned a life she didn’t like. Lillian’s best friend convinces Nathan the authorities are wrong. With no jurisdiction, no resources, and no witnesses, he is compelled by the pictures of Lillian with her sweet smile and sparkling green eyes to obsessively take up the case. Armed with Lillian’s keys and personal information, he spends hours, then days in her home trying to find clues that will lead him to her.

    But when her shattered mirror reveals a hidden room, she never suspects the two incidents could be linked.Determined to discover the truth behind her spies, Alex finds herself cut off from family and friends and forced to make allies wherever she can find them, all while evading the people who've been spying. It isn't long before Alex questions everything she knows and what she thought coincidence, may be anything but.Now with her life and sanity on the line, Alex must resist her enemy's mind games if she wants to expose every dark secret. To succumb would result in her true identity being lost forever and countless others suffering the same fate. But to succeed, would shatter everything she knows.