Judi Westerholme

Judi Westerholme is happy living in secluded Candlebark, growing her own food, bothering no one - until the cops come knocking. Informed that her estranged brother Andy has been murdered, she assumes it’s connected to his long-term drug addiction. But when she returns home, Judi is shocked to discover that Andy had been clean for years and had a wife - now missing - and a two-year-old child, Mia. Andy seems to have been leading an ordinary life. But if he had turned things around for himself, why was he killed in a drug-deal shooting? And where is his wife?

Judi Westerholme has been through it. Brave and strong-willed, she's just about coping in her new role as foster parent to her orphaned niece, taking a job at the local pub to help make ends meet. Then the pub's landlord and Judi's friend, army veteran Pete 'Macca' Macclesfield, is murdered and her world is suddenly turned upside down. Despite warnings from the city police to keep out of it, Judi can't help but get involved in the search for Macca's killer.

Already struggling to juggle co-running Candlebark's pub/bistro along with her new childcare responsibilities, the last thing Judi Westerholme needs right now is more stress. Yet, as usual, it arrives in spades: she starts receiving threatening late-night phone calls before discovering one of her best employees, Kate, shot dead in her bed. Once again, Judi finds herself at the centre of a murder investigation, as well as the hunt for Kate's fourteen-year-old daughter who has been missing since the murder.