A Kiss Gone Bad — Jeff Abbott

Award-winning author Jeff Abbott has shaded the modern crime novel with wry dialogue, unforgettable characters, and steamy Southern atmosphere. In this eagerly awaited new novel, a rookie judge with everything to lose discovers there's nothing more dangerous than a kiss....

A death rocks the Gulf Coast town of Port Leo, Texas. Beach-bum-turned-judge Whit Mosley is summoned to a yacht where the black-sheep son of a senator lies dead. Was it suicide, fueled by a family tragedy? Or did an obsessed killer use the dead man as a pawn in a twisted game? When Whit defies political pressure and conducts an inquest, he and Detective Claudia Salazar expose a nest of drug lords, con artists, and power-hungry sharks--all out for blood. With their careers--and their lives--at stake, Whit and Claudia must unearth a lethal trail of passion and deceit that lies buried not in the warm sands of Port Leo but in the icy recesses of the human heart....