Desert Shadows — Betty Webb

DEAD, WHITE AND BLUE

Patriot's Blood Press publisher Gloriana Alden-Taylor keels over and dies at a Scottsdale book convention after someone sprinkled her salad with hemlock. Private investigator Lena Jones takes a personal interest in the case when the accused killer turns out to be the cousin of her partner at Desert Investigations.

A racist, a purist and an extremist, Gloriana was, as one of her enemies put it, a person who would 'disgust the Devil.' She published books that promoted bigotry, while supremacy and hatred, and made a lot of money. Lena is surprised that no one had killed her before this. The investigation takes Lena behind bars, where she encounters some of the most violent, twisted and dangerously prolific writers on Death Row at the Arizona State Prison - and into a shocking glimpse of her own murky past, in a case where nothing is black and white... especially blood.