"Houston is one smart writer: She traps us in the same chilling
environment as her characters so we feel what they feel -- and fear what they fear. And soon, whether we're in the comfort our study or in a lounge chair at the beach, we hear the threatening growl of a killer beast and begin pondering the possibility of murder."
                       —Jim Fusilli, Award-Winning author of Hard, Hard City

5.5 x 8.5 | 272 pages | November 2009
Hardcover | $24.95 | ISBN: 978-1-60648-061-8
Paperback | $14.95 | ISBN: 978-1-60648-062-5
Evidence Collection | $45.00 | 978-1-60648-063-2

Dead Renegade summary

A sunny Thursday heading into the Fourth of July and retired dentist, Doc Osborne, is helping his daughter, Erin, who has just opened her own legal practice. They are assisting an elderly client of Erin’s reclaim an antique chest from an uncooperative antique dealer when Doc Osborne stumbles over a rug and human remains tumble onto the floor.

While he is alerting Chief of Police Lew Ferris, his fly fishing instructor who is more than that, he learns that his granddaughter, Mason, may be the victim of an assault. This brings back ugly memories exacerbated by the release of a man, a former Loon Lake resident, convicted twenty years earlier of attempted murder -- and who once stalked another of Osborne’s daughters.

When his granddaughter is rescued by C.J. Calverson, the very pretty young wife of an older financier, Osborne and Chief Ferris are relieved -- only to learn that the young wife’s husband is convinced there may be a contract out on his life – and there may be good reasons why someone wants him dead. Hampered by the poor performance of Loon Lake’s coroner, Chief Ferris brings Doc Osborne on board to help with the dental forensics as the Wausau Crime Lab needs his assistance to identify the human bones found in the antique rug. The victim’s identity leads to the re-opening of a cold case connected to a series of burglaries that are inexplicably occurring again.

The action ramps up when fishing guide, Ray Pradt, while coaching his young friend, Nick, a college student competing in a local round of the National Collegiate Bass Fishing Tournament, finds too many reasons to see the very attractive C.J. This complicates a domestic dilemma already bordering on violence.

Murder, mayhem and fishing: once again Loon Lake has all the action.

Victoria Houston is the author of the highly popular Loon Lake mystery series. She has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and on National Public Radio. The next book in her series, Dead Madonna, will be her first with Bleak House Books. It'll be published in the spring of 2007. Learn more about Victoria on her website.