The new Hawaiian Storm mystery will be available for download March 15
FBI Special Agent Vanessa Storm is back on March 15 in the latest Hawaiian Storm mystery, Dead Man Lying! While it won’t be available on your favourite ebook retailer platform until then, you can pre-order it at a special low price now.
What is Dead Man Lying about?
FBI Special Agent Vanessa Storm returns to Maui’s rain-soaked coast and teams up with local police to investigate the death of a once-famous singer. She uncovers drug trafficking, stolen music and a string of mysterious deaths. As a savage tropical storm traps every witness, and suspect, in the singer’s rambling home, Vanessa learns that they’re all lying.But the biggest liar of all may just be the victim—the dead man, lying.
Enjoy a sample
From Chapter 3: Evidence
Reid took a tape measure from his cargo pocket. “At a yard above the ground, this tree was a good … eight inches in diameter,” he said. Sheree Patel tapped on a tablet computer. “It took some serious caliber for one round to blow it apart like this, I’d say. Wooden you, Sheree?”
Reid’s assistant rolled her eyes and continue to tap on her tablet.
“Now I know where to go when I want to get some wood,” Lani joked, then immediately regretted it.
“Careful, Detective,” Reid warned, grinning broadly. “That wasn’t politically correct.”
Patel rolled her eyes again. Lani took a deep breath and hoped she wasn’t blushing. That was worse than any of Reid’s.
“If it’s a hefty round, it’ll easier to identify the gun it was fired from,” she said. “Knowing it’s a larger-caliber firearm narrows down the possibilities.”
“Good luck finding anything in this undergrowth,” Reid said.
He started taking more measurements, like the distance from the koa to the heiau, the width of the path and the spacing between other trees. Patel tapped to record every measurement, and in between took photos.
Reid looked down the path. “Can’t really see the house or any other buildings from here. Which means it’s pretty unlikely that whoever shot this tree to smithereens was shooting from there.”
“Unless they weren’t aiming for those three people in particular,” Patel said.
The CSI investigators moved around, taking pictures and measurements. Lani looked at the sky, where the clouds kept getting lower and darker.
“Well, what do you know?” Sheree announced as Lani thought about getting back to shelter. Sheree was just off the path, close to the heiau, several yards away from the koa stump.
The small woman snapped on a pair of blue latex gloves, reached under a low, broad-leafed bush and held something up in triumph. “Does this look like a bullet? Big enough to kill an elephant.” She dropped the object into a plastic bag and put a marker on the spot where the object had been.
“That’s not a bullet. It’s a shotgun slug. That’s the only weapon that could have fired this monster,” Reid said. He showed it to Lani.
In the bag was a blackened, distorted, shapeless hunk. “Deformed when it hit the tree trunk,” she guessed.
“And deflected quite a lot, as well, unless I miss my guess,” Reid answered. “That’ll make it harder to determine which direction it was fired from.
“This is good work. Let’s get back to shelter before the rain starts again.”
They hustled down the path, toward the Sangster main house and its covered verandah and walkways.