MKC Books

At long last, Dead Water is out in the wild in ebook format. Currently, it's available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Smashwords, which distributes to other sites like Apple.

The paperback will follow in another month or so and I will announce it on the blog.

Here is the blurb:

​​Coffee is life...

But with her tap water suddenly cut off, Sheriff Karen Okerlund Mehaffey has to go cold turkey—and increasingly thirsty—after a body is found floating in Lake Meer early on a lazy summer morning.

As the boiling hot Dakota sun rises over the lake, Karen and her detective-uncle Marek Okerlund are greeted by a full-scale massacre...of fish. Setting that environmental mystery aside, they reluctantly determine the man in the lake wasn't likely the victim of an accidental drowning. But just what the cause of death was baffles the medical examiner.

The superintendent of Reunion's water department, Evert Vann had plenty of enemies both at home and at work. That includes a simmering feud with his rural neighbors, who banded together to restore the polluted lake—and include an unexpected family connection to Karen. And if that wasn't enough, Vann had lured a trio of corporate sharks to Reunion with his ambitious and controversial plans to bargain away city water to private interests.

As a potentially devastating storm looms on the horizon, Karen and Marek wade hip deep into a case filled with murky secrets and slippery suspects. In the process, they discover just how important water is to life—and death.

You may (or may not) remember that a couple years ago I did an interview for a documentary called Books Across America. A young writer and documentarian named Mason Engel decided to visit 50 states in 50 days to interview 50 authors. Yours truly was Day #9. (And I was shaking in my boots the entire time.) My "minisode" has just hit, something a friend had to tell me, as I was oblivious. 

​Link here. 

This blog has been almost all about fiction. But sometimes real life intrudes. And death.

For nearly four years now, I have been living in my hometown on the prairie. My mother went into care here five years ago and when I retired, I returned to be here for her.

Early in February, when I was about ten chapters into Dead Water, Mom began to decline rapidly. I stopped writing entirely so I could concentrate on her and her care. Mom passed away in the wee hours on the Ides of March. (Always beware!) This long journey has been one of the most difficult things I have done in my life but also rewarding. 

With the many things that must be done following a death, I have yet to get back to writing but hope to soon. Just wanted to let you all know that there will be a book out this year, but it won't be until later in the year.

The trade paperback version of Dead Time is now out in the wild. You can order it from Amazon or through your local bookstore.

My readers are no doubt accustomed, though perhaps not happily, to my...um...unpunctuality. Although I have managed to publish one book a year since Dead White first came out in 2011, the schedule has slipped from spring releases all the way to November (ebook) and December (print). 

When I retired three summers ago, I returned to my hometown on the prairie. Finally having writing as my "day job" gave me a bit more flexibility, but not a lot (eldercare). But I was determined to get my writing schedule back to the proper time slot: during the frigid stay-at-home (also known as cabin-fever) winter months in the Dakotas. Being cooped inside in front of my computer during the summers is a real drag.

Well, I finally made it happen! Though my brain grumbled and gnashed its exhausted synapses the whole time. (For some reason, my brain wanted a break between books.) As it is now hitting the 90s in the Dakotas, with 100s in the forecast, I hope you can all cool off (preferably by the pool or near a lake or ocean) with Dead Time. It is currently available in ebook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Smashwords. A paperback is forthcoming and will be announced here on the blog. 

Here's the blurb:

It's dead time...

With everything terminally frozen in the Dakotas, Sheriff Karen Okerlund Mehaffey gets called out on a subzero Saturday morning to the local funeral home to investigate the death of a financial consultant who lived by the mantra "time is money."

Just getting to town is a challenge for a sleep-deprived Karen, made more difficult by an unexpected stowaway. But at least she and her detective-uncle Marek Okerlund dodge hosting a distant Swedish cousin who crashes their still-healing family—a member of which is suddenly threatened with a very short time on earth.

As suspects look to bolt back to their far-flung homes, Karen and Marek try to balance the job and their personal lives, with a renewed sense of the precious and fleeting nature of time, while the clock ticks down on nabbing a killer.

The "tangible" version of Dead Erratics aka a trade paperback is now available at Amazon and can also be ordered through your local bookstore.

Exactly a year after my last book, I published Dead Erratics: A Dakota Mystery on November 15th.

​It took me into a realm that I had, on a personal level, never visited before, namely that of serious mental illness. It was a sobering journey. But one that leaves some glimmerings of hope.

Currently Dead Erratics is available as an ebook on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords. For some reason, Kobo has been hung up on publishing for a couple days now. (Now available here.) A trade paperback will be forthcoming, and I will announce it here on the blog.

Here's the blurb:

A crazy season...

With the holidays just around the corner, the last thing Sheriff Karen Okerlund Mehaffey wants under her tree is a murder investigation. So when she and her detective-uncle Marek Okerlund discover two bodies—one freshly dead and one a skeleton—in an abandoned insane asylum in Eda County, South Dakota, she hopes both were natural deaths.

The recent victim, a past administrator at the state mental hospital, had as many detractors as he held credentials—a man not even his psychoanalyst mother could love. The hundred-year-old female skeleton, on the other hand, may have ties to one of the most beloved families in the county—the very same who built the asylum and are now trying to reopen it as a community mental health center for struggling rural families.

If that wasn't enough, Karen gets blindsided when a relative suddenly exhibits signs of psychosis, throwing all her beliefs about mental illness into chaos. 

Ultimately, unraveling the history and stigma of mental illness may be the only way out and back into the season of hope.

Next book is currently in final edits! Barring the unforeseen, Dead Erratics will come out in ebook format sometime in November with print to follow.

As always, my cover artist (Glendon Haddix) did a bang-up job...

The trade paperback for Dead Rote is now out! You can get it on Amazon (USA) or through your local bookstore. 

Normally I do a cover reveal before I release an ebook. Maybe even give a teaser about the book. But as I only finalized the cover this past week, I figured I'd just announce both cover and ebook. A two-fer! And no wait...

Dead Rote is out in the wild in ebook format at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Smashwords. The last is a distributor to Apple, so it may be a while yet before it appears there.

A trade paperback version is forthcoming and I will announce it here on the blog.

Here is the blurb:

School is hell...

Art teacher Nikki Solberg is having a very bad day. Her job is on the chopping block, her estranged relatives are cheering her downfall, and someone trashed her art room. If that wasn't enough, a contentious school board meeting comes to a grinding halt when the new superintendent keels over from natural causes... or is it murder?

Nikki's boyfriend, Detective Marek Okerlund, has troubles of his own, as his third-grade daughter is threatened by a classmate. Not to mention going back to school reminds Marek of his own hellacious years with undiagnosed dyslexia.

Along with Sheriff Karen Okerlund Mehaffey, Marek has to put all that aside and concentrate on an investigation into one bad apple.

Who will get schooled... the good guys or a killer?