About this ebook
Book 1: Who Hates Marigold Flowers?
How does a wedding planner from Lake Placid, New York end up in the trunk of a Toyota Corolla submerged in a frozen lake near Windham, nearly two hundred miles away? It's easy if you've got two contract killers after you!
Marigold Flowers doesn't understand why anyone would want to kill her. Her specialty is parties, not crime. But there's no denying that someone with a lot of money and significant resources is out to silence her. What secrets does she hold about international money laundering and a criminal syndicate?
Book 2: In the Shadows of a Lie
Booted out of the Department of Justice’s WitSec program, suspected of orchestrating the attempted murder of a US Marshal…how can life get any more perilous for Marigold Flowers?
Now that she's shed her old alias, the reborn Olivia Michaud is determined to prove her innocence with the help of Jefferson Cornwall, best-selling thriller author and TV producer, and his brothers. What does all this have to do with her WitSec life in Rhode Island? Was it her fault Jared Spears was brutally murdered? With millions of dollars at stake, and a clever villain on her heels, Olivia is determined to figure out the secret her fiancé took to the grave with him.
Book 3: Bury Me in Paradise
Now settled in Atlanta, Olivia Michaud is shocked to discover she's still on someone's hit list. Desperate to keep her alive, Jefferson Cornwall sends her off to stay with friends of his who are retired FBI agents. But there is nowhere safe for this damsel in distress!
Snatched in Georgia by a couple of hired thugs, Olivia is tossed into the back of a van for a harrowing trip down to Florida. The mastermind of this twisted scheme needs to keep her alive long enough to retrieve a fortune in laundered money in Curaçao. As Jefferson Cornwall and his security team work feverishly to locate the missing woman, time is running out for Olivia. The minute that boat hits international waters, she may be lost forever. Can the plucky heroine keep her wits about her, even as a ruthless murderer continues his killing spree?
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About the author
I love to write, so you will find I am the author of several fast-paced cozy mysteries featuring lively characters like Scarlet Wilson. These tales are laced with humor and romance, but they are of the traditional style of cozy mysteries. The amateur sleuths typically reside in small towns and villages. The crime could take place in your neck of the woods. It could be your next-door neighbor who is found in a heap on the side of the road. It could be your dog that gets the first whiff of that cadaver and alerts you to its presence.
My determined crime solvers might not be trained to tackle big cases, but they do rub elbows with investigators who are used to dealing with wily criminals…and not exactly enthusiastic about having amateur sleuths along for the ride, even clever ones!
While some of the cases are heinous, there is rarely a need to go into detail about any murder scene. To me, that’s like rubbernecking at a traffic accident. If it’s not pertinent to the case, why get gruesome? Nor will you normally hear my cozy mystery characters swear. That doesn’t mean they won’t bicker or get snarky.
As S. M. Barton, I write espionage thrillers. These are not necessarily for the faint of heart. Spies do what they do to achieve their goals. There is normally a lot of excitement, some very hairy twists and turns, and some unconscionable behavior. These are adventures driven by circumstances beyond the control of the protagonists. Survival is the name of the game. It’s not always easy to know who the good guys are and who the bad guys are, let alone what kind of havoc that will result from all the mayhem, murder, and madness. If intrigue is your thing, you will want to check these out.
