Fatal Blow

AN UNFAITHFUL HUSBAND, AN AGGRIEVED WIFE, AND A CUNNING PLAN FOR REVENGE THAT’S TOO CLEVER BY HALF. WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?

Becky Miller is stunned to discover that her husband, Walter, is having an affair with a scatter­brained cocktail waitress. In retaliation, she devises a clever plan that will place her philandering husband squarely in the sights of both the police and the IRS before she divorces him and leaves him to the tender mercies of his dopey girlfriend. But as she sets her scheme into motion, things go tragically wrong and Becky winds up a victim of her own carefully-orchestrated plan. Shortly thereafter, a female torso floats to the surface of a Phoenix canal and the case is assigned to hom­icide detective Sean Richardson and his partner, Maggie McClinton. DNA tests confirm that the victim is Becky Miller. But what seems at first to be a fairly straight-forward investigation turns out to be much more complicated, and as their case becomes increasingly convoluted, Sean and Maggie must sort through the havoc that Becky Miller has left in her wake and somehow find the solution to an especially gruesome crime before anyone else pays the ultimate price for a scheme that’s gotten way out of hand.

"FATAL BLOW is a meticulous and engrossing procedural – from the perspective of both the dogged detective and the surprising, enterprising criminal."—Lou Berney, Edgar Award winning author of The Long and Faraway Gone

“Beautifully written and tautly plotted--one of the best procedurals I’ve read in years.” — Christine Carbo, Award-winning author of The Wild Inside

Praise for the Sean Richardson Series

“No Place to Die” is a two-in-one treat, a convincing police procedural bolted to a nail-biter suspense novel. A good novel gives you real people in a real place, and James L. Thane delivers both with his skillfully drawn cops, victims and crooks in today’s Phoenix”—-Sam Reaves, author of Mean Town Blues

“No Place to Die is an auspicious beginning to what I hope will become a series. Sean and Maggie make a great crime-solving team.—Barbara D’Amato, Author of Death of a Thousand Cuts

“An engaging police procedural that hooks the audience. … Readers will relish James L. Thane’s tense thriller.—The Mystery Gazette

“A fast action thriller...”-—Suspense Magazine