Tag Archives: SBI

Karen Pullen. Cold Feet. Detriot: Five Star, 2013.

cold feetWhen Stella Lavender agreed to accompany her grandmother to a wedding, she didn’t expect to be pulled into a murder investigation.  Stella works for the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, and the undercover work she’s been doing has her interacting with all manner of drug dealers, drug runners, and addicts.  Although Stella hates putting on a dress, she is looking forward to an afternoon of good food, champagne, and polite company at an attractive country inn.  But Stella is not sooner settled in her seat when she notices a bridesmaid talking excitedly to the inn’s owner.  Something is amiss. When Stella goes to investigate she finds the innkeeper and bridesmaid huddled over the bride’s lifeless body.  The young woman clearly died an agonizing death.

Soon the local authorities are on the scene, and the investigation begins.  Stella is happy to aid local detective Anselmo Morales, but she is less than thrilled to be working again with her ex-fiancé, Hogan Leith, who is a fraternity brother of the bridegroom.  Several of the groom’s frat brothers came for the funeral, even one brother whose wife died tragically just months ago.  As Stella and Anselmo investigate the murder they find that the wedding included a passel of unhappy people: an ex-girlfriend of the groom, a couple who object to the bride’s profession, parents who try to impose their values on their adult children, and an innkeeper who believes someone is sabotaging his business. When the coroner’s report adds unexpected information about the dead woman, Anselmo and Stella have yet another avenue to explore.

Between the murder investigation and her ongoing drug squad work, Stella Lavender barely has time to exercise her mutt Merle (who was the subject of a bitter custody dispute with her ex-fiancé). Cold Feet is an action-packed start to a new mystery series.

 

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2010-2019, 2013, Mystery, Piedmont, Pullen, Karen

Susan Whitfield. Sin Creek. London, TX: L&L Dreamspell, 2011.

UPDATE NOV. 17, 2015: Susan Whitfield’s books are now published by Studebaker Press. The covers of her books have changed since this blog post was originally published.

When she’s called to investigate a murder on the UNC-Wilmington campus, Logan Hunter certainly doesn’t look the part of a tough and capable SBI Agent. Clad in high heels and a silk dress, she comes straight from her own bridal shower. The scene she finds couldn’t be more different than the genteel high tea honoring her impending marriage. Maeve Smoltz wasn’t only killed, she was torn apart. Perhaps more troubling is the evidence of heavy sexual abuse on her body, especially for a brand-new college freshman. Agent Hunter is determined to find some answers, but the ones she uncovers point to far more terrible deeds and only raise more questions. Married quickly in the middle of the investigation, she and her new husband, handsome fellow Agent Chase Reilly, have even more to lose as they work together to bring down the perpetrators of this and other heinous acts. Will their new marriage survive? Will they?

Inspired to write this next installment in the Logan Hunter Mystery Series as a way to raise awareness of the effect the porn industry has on impressionable, often monetarily needy young women trying to make their way through college, Susan Whitfield has written a gripping and sad novel that nonetheless has a hopeful ending. Due to the explicit nature of some material, this book is recommended for mature readers only.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2010-2019, 2011, Coast, Mystery, New Hanover, Novels in Series, Suspense/Thriller, Whitfield, Susan

Susan Whitfield. Hell Swamp. Spring, TX: L & L Dreamspell, 2009.

UPDATE NOV. 17, 2015: Susan Whitfield’s books are now published by Studebaker Press.

She was supposed to be taking a few days off to work on her wedding plans, but when the SBI is short-staffed, Agent Logan Hunter is called in to work a gruesome murder case. When she gets to the crime scene–a historic house in rural Ivanhoe, NC–both it and its evidence have been compromised, and she is told that she won’t be receiving any additional SBI help any time soon. It doesn’t take long to figure out that dead woman, an animal rights activist, had a lot of enemies in the surrounding community. As she searches for the killer, Logan questions local hunters, has a run in with a snake-handling congregation, and battles her own night terrors. This is the third book in the Logan Hunter Mystery series.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2009, Coastal Plain, Mystery, Novels in Series, Sampson, Whitfield, Susan

Susan Whitfield. Just North of Luck. West Conshohocken, PA: Infinity Publishing, 2007.

UPDATE NOV. 17, 2015: Susan Whitfield’s books are now published by Studebaker Press.

In Just North of Luck, the second book in the Logan Hunter mystery series, new SBI agent Logan trades the beach for the Blue Ridge Mountains. Her first assignment is to expose a moonshine ring in fictional Moss County, but after a school janitor is brutally murdered in the town of Trust, she offers to help with that investigation as well. As time passes, the deaths of more school employees have Logan and a local detective searching for a serial killer. In addition to murder and moonshine, Logan also uncovers a local meth producer and faces some of the ghosts from her past.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2007, Madison, Mountains, Mystery, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Whitfield, Susan

Susan Whitfield. The Logan Hunter Mysteries.

UPDATE NOV. 17, 2015: Susan Whitfield’s books are now published by Studebaker Press.

These mysteries follow Logan Hunter, an agent for the State Bureau of Investigation, as she begins her career and moves around the state attempting to solve crimes. The action in the first book takes place at the beach and Hunter is still an intern, trying to complete her required field hours. By the second book, she is a full-fledged agent assigned to find a serial killer in the mountains. The third sees her interrupted by a terrible crime in Ivanhoe, NC while planning her wedding.

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Filed under Novels in Series, Series, Whitfield, Susan

Susan Whitfield. Genesis Beach. New York, iUniverse, Inc., 2007.

UPDATE NOV. 17, 2015: Susan Whitfield’s books are now published by Studebaker Press.

In this, the first of the Logan Hunter mysteries, North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation intern Logan Hunter is assigned to the Genesis Beach Police Department to complete her required field hours. Although inexperienced, Logan is assigned to investigate the high-profile death of a local millionaire. In the course of her investigation she faces a variety of challenges, including a hurricane, recurring nightmares, and frustration as her investigation grinds to a halt after a second local death.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2007, Coast, Mystery, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Whitfield, Susan

Karen Rose. Have You Seen Her? New York: Warner Books, 2004.

Special Agent Steven Thatcher is on the trail of a serial killer who is targeting cheerleaders in the fictional Raleigh suburb of Pineville. In between chasing criminals, Thatcher, a widower, finds time to care for his three sons. Worried about his eldest son, he meets with the boy’s teacher, Jenna Marshall, and the sparks fly. Their romantic involvement becomes especially complicated when it turns out that the killer may be eyeing Jenna as his next victim.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

Comments Off on Karen Rose. Have You Seen Her? New York: Warner Books, 2004.

Filed under 2000-2009, 2004, Piedmont, Romance/Relationship, Rose, Karen, Suspense/Thriller, Wake