Dead Hot — M.K. Coker

It's not just the sun's rays beaming down... After losing a brutal election, Sheriff Karen Mehaffey and her uncle, Detective Marek Okerlund, are headed from South Dakota to New Mexico for a long delayed vacation and job hunt. Marek hopes to reunite with his old homicide partner in Albuquerque, while Karen looks to resume her former career as a dispatcher. But when Marek's young daughter goes unexpectedly mute when their plane lands in the city of her mother's death, all plans are put on hold. Dispirited, they'd barely arrived at their motel when a man dies on their doorstep, proclaiming himself the victim of radiation poisoning. Crazy? Perhaps. But with his last words, the man snares their attention: he asks them to tell Karen's father back in South Dakota that he's sorry... but for what? Fated for a busman's holiday, Karen and Marek find themselves entangled in a case hotter than the New Mexico sun. DEAD HOT is a character-driven police procedural. Sixth in series. Word Count: 70,000. Occasional profanity. Minimal gore.