Showing results by author "Stephen Penner" in All Categories

Homicide prosecutor David Brunelle faces the most difficult case of his career. An innocent young girl is murdered in a heinous, unforgivable way. The only evidence against the killer is the full confession of his accomplice - another young girl he also victimized. But the accomplice is charged with the murder as well, which means that she has the right to remain silent. And she's so scared of the killer, she refuses to take a deal to testify against him.

Sometimes the easiest cases are the hardest. The defendant absolutely, positively murdered her own mother. She is also absolutely, positively mentally ill. Homicide prosecutor David Brunelle is tasked with holding her responsible despite the best efforts of her defense team, which includes a psychologist who's convinced that she's innocent. As the case proceeds, the pressures mount, and Brunelle begins to question his own sanity. Will Brunelle crack the case, or will the case crack him?

A man is murdered in Seattle's Pioneer Square. The killer is caught just blocks away, blood still on his hands. When it's discovered that both killer and victim belong to the same Native American tribe, the tribe asserts jurisdiction, and homicide DA Dave Brunelle has to prosecute the case in their tribal court. It's bad enough when the defense attorney claims the killing was justified under the ancient custom of "blood revenge". It gets worse when blood revenge turns into a blood feud.

Michael Jameson is a successful, 40-something, African American husband and father. And he's just been charged with a 25-year-old cold case murder, a gang-related drug deal gone horribly wrong. Talon agrees to take the case, but the one question she needs answered is the one question Michael refuses to answer: Did he do it?

Criminal defense attorney Talon Winter holds a man's life in her hands. Ezekiel Frazier is just another small-time drug user until he gets pulled over in someone else's car with a gun under the seat. Now he's facing a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Talon doesn't just have to battle a heartless prosecutor who's using the case to get her next promotion. She also has to deal with a social justice lawyer who wants her to throw the case, a former investigator who wants to be more than just friends, and her own brother—fresh out of prison.

A LOCKED ROOM MYSTERY IN SPACE. The colonists of the first space station on Mars have vanished. Captain John Stanton leads a second team to the Red Planet, unsure what he'll find. Originally assigned merely to relieve the first group, Stanton must now figure out what happened to them, and keep the same fate from befalling his own crew. As he investigates, the mystery deepens and the dangers multiply: remorseless sandstorms, virulent bacteria... perhaps even ancient Martian ghosts. Stanton's mission changes from relief, to rescue, to simple escape.

Set between the events of SCOTTISH RITE and BLOOD RITE, this light-hearted short story features Maggie Devereaux solving the mystery of the missing puffins of Cragmore, Scotland.

PARANORMAL MURDER MYSTERY, SET IN THE SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS. American graduate student Maggie Devereaux fulfills a life-long dream when she travels to Scotland to study abroad. Her dream turns to a nightmare, however, when a serial killer begins murdering women at the school. When Maggie discovers a lost book of Highland magic, she grows convinced the killer is following an ancient rite for summoning a demon. Maggie will have to open her mind to the possibility that the magic in the spellbook is real... because the magic may be the only thing that can save her from becoming the killer’s next...

PARANORMAL ADVENTURE. 14-year-old Jeni Tanaka just wants to belong. To something. To anything. But right when she's about to join the cool girls' clique, she suffers an embarrassing seizure--brought on by an ancient Japanese goddess trying to possess her. When she wakes up, the girls are gone, but a mysterious boy appears, claiming to be the "godling" to a Native American creation god. He tells Jeni that she has threatened all of existence by rejecting her goddess. What follows is a whirlwind adventure, as Jeni criss-crosses the globe, trying to save her kidnapped mother, restore balance to...

Criminal defense attorney Talon Winter agrees to represent an 18-year-old man charged with a murder he didn't commit. But under the strict letter of the law, he can still be held responsible for the actions of the person who actually pulled the trigger. The problem is, the trigger-puller is a cop.

The heir to the Clan MacLeod has been kidnapped. The police think it's for ransom, but Maggie Devereaux knows better. She'll have to tap into her dark magic again to save the baby, damn the consequences. Except that damnation may well be the consequence for Maggie.

In SCOTTISH RITE, American graduate student Maggie Devereaux discovered a lost Celtic book of Dark Magic. In BLOOD RITE, Maggie unravelled a prophesy that foretold the eventual loss of all White Magic. Now, in LAST RITE, Maggie will learn the truth about why the White Magic disappeared. But does she really want to know the truth? And will she solve the mystery in time to save the love of her life?