“Rother delivers a gripping expertly woven crime thriller from the first page. Hooked is a tense, multifaceted plot filled with murder, secrets, and a brilliantly plotted cover-up that keeps the pages flying.”

—Audrey J. Cole, USA Today bestselling author of Missing in Flight

In this suspenseful thriller by Caitlin Rother, a journalist and cop fight a sexual attraction as they join forces to expose a layered scheme of dark and dangerous secrets.

When investigative reporter Katrina Chopin and surfing homicide detective Ken Goode lock eyes, there’s an immediate attraction. Sparks fly as they bond over cocktails, sharing their common experiences of being orphans and losing loved ones to suicide.

But the next time they meet, it’s from opposing sides of a high-profile case. Two biotech execs, whose company is developing a groundbreaking sexual enhancement drug, turn up dead in the wealthy seaside enclave of La Jolla Farms, where Goode can readily see that the forensic evidence doesn’t add up.

As they work their own angles, sometimes together and sometimes at odds, their growing attraction threatens to cost them their jobs—and their lives. As Katrina and Goode pursue answers behind these mysterious events, a secret stalker taunts Katrina with details of her tragic past, which takes her to the brink of death. But once the duo rips the mask away from this beautiful paradise, the corrupt underbelly behind all that glitters is revealed.

Fourteen-year-old Johnny Cong, an enterprising orphan of mixed parentage, lives in the Stingaree district of the city, a degenerate slum where he ekes out a living driving a donkey cart. Johnny believes in the American Dream, but when a mysterious Norwegian named John Sigerson hires him as a guide, he must navigate a dangerous path between loyalty and treason.

Equal parts spy thriller, western, coming-of-age story, and Sherlockian intrigue, The Deadly Stingaree tells the remarkable story of this young man and his notable friends—a notorious gunslinger, a former Buffalo soldier, a crusading female attorney, and the world’s greatest detective—who saved the president and the union that day.

https://www.caitlinrother.com/