Finalist for Best Cozy Mystery, New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards, 2021
Cat Miranda returns to her childhood home in Bisbee, Arizona, to take over her brother's art gallery following his untimely death. On her first night home, an unexpected guest arrives, charming visiting British scholar Miles Trevelyan. Then in the middle of the night, an intruder breaks in, and Miles is forced to fight him off. Cat quickly realizes that the mystery of the break-in is linked to an 8-foot tall painting in the art gallery titled "Kissed." The artist who painted "Kissed" has disappeared, and Cat determines to find him in hopes of understanding what the intruder wants. Miles helps Cat search for the artist and search as well for answers to the mystery of the painting. As they launch their investigation, they learn that the artist has made several enemies in Bisbee. The animosity toward the artist always circles back to his painting "Kissed." Cat and Miles take a break to have a little fun with each other in the Bisbee Great Stair Climb, but during race Cat is attacked and threatened with death. The heat rises with these assaults on Cat and between Cat and Miles, too, as their feelings for each other grow. Can they discover what is behind the painting "Kissed" before Cat becomes the next victim? There's mystery, suspense, and romance in this Sonoran Desert Borderlands tale.