Linda Darby Mystery Series

Linda Darby is a seven-year divorcee, living quietly in a small let-the-world-go-by beach town on the coast of Oregon, who day trades for a living. Her only close friend is a widowed elderly woman who manages a small consulting company, and the rumor is that whatever they do is done for the government. One evening, Linda goes for a walk, and nothing for her is ever the same. She is dragged into an alley by two men, but saved by a third. The next day, she finds out the two men in the alley had been killed, the town’s first murders ever.

Memories are funny things, the way they quietly hang around and linger, waiting for something we see or hear, or an unexpected event to slam them forward into our consciousness to strike us the way headlights assault a dark road. Some memories bring along a smile, others foreshadow danger, and there are those which cry out for resolution. All of this is true for Linda Darby. Linda wonders if she might again be lured into her first lover’s bed. As the pace quickens she does find love, along with friendship, fear, danger, and opportunity.

An assassination is planned in Syria. An extramarital affair occurs in Washington, DC. The US president decides to run for reelection. A mother and her daughter in Oregon are threatened. Relentlessly, Linda Darby and Ryan Testler are pulled toward these seemingly disparate events until their only way out is to confront what is quickly becoming unavoidable.

The President of the United States assigns Ryan Testler a cloak-and-dagger mission to Europe in pursuit of support for his new doctrine dealing with the Middle East. Linda Darby accompanies Ryan to create the look of a couple of tourists. That cover story fails. Meanwhile, back in Washington, D.C., a lone terrorist, after four years as a sleeper, is activated.