The Expedient Wife

Perception is Never Reality

A Quinn Durand International Suspense Novel

After a whirlwind wedding in Mexico, Quinn Durand follows her military husband to Türkiye. With dreams of a new life outside the U.S. and no family left to hold her, she closes her law practice, sells her condo, and bids her former life goodbye. Landing in Izmir and expecting to see her handsome, gregarious Harris waiting on the tarmac, she is instead met by Air Force officers with news that her husband of two months has been killed in a helicopter accident. Running from an indictment for treason, theft, and other crimes, Harris has implicated Quinn as his partner. He left her a necklace, a tiny computer disk she cannot open, and a note telling her not to believe anything about him she is told.

Needing to know the truth, Quinn refuses to return to the States, given one week by an Air Force officer to prove her innocence or risk being hauled back to the U.S. to face her criminal charges. No longer trusting Americans, Quinn is forced to rely on her pushy Turkish landlord and a local computer hacker for help. Finding money, fake passports, and cryptic numbers from the disk, Quinn is forced to flee as Bulgarians, Turks, and Americans are desperate for what she has discovered.

From the Mediterranean and Aegean coasts of Türkiye, The Expedient Wife is the story of one woman’s dogged search for the truth, learning that in her new world of lies and half-truths, perception is never reality.

Forever Gone

A Lee Danforth Suspense Novel

Lee Danforth, a Charleston real estate lawyer is pushed by clients to investigate the mismanagement of a local children’s ranch after the death of its founder, Jack Marshall. Very much out of her practice area, Lee is persuaded to get involved only after hearing the appalling claims of what is happening to the ranch children and the local South Carolina solicitor’s refusal to prosecute.

Desperate to hide her own seduction by Jack at fifteen from the conservative community, Lee finds more than messy finances at the ranch. With an unknown tipster’s help, she uncovers illegal activities by Jack’s family that include rape and a working relationship with a sex trafficking ring. With evidence of Jack’s murder and another group of children scheduled to be sold, Lee’s attempt to force the solicitor’s involvement risks her personal reputation and thriving law practice if her past is revealed. Knowing she must stop the next shipment of children, Lee risks everything to expose Jack’s family from their nefarious activities and bring Jack’s killer to justice, learning that the nasty truth, when exposed to light, most certainly can set you free.

Malevolent Intent

A Lee Danforth Suspense Novel

Army Colonel Vernon Matheson’s actions during his fourth tour in Afghanistan result in the death of two of his men and leaves his best friend severely injured. His barely honorable discharge sends him to Charleston as a reluctant civilian. Arriving home, he finds a raging party and a dead woman sprawled on his bedroom floor but no sign of his wife or child. With the local police reluctant to find his family and his aging grandparents with issues of their own, Matheson requests assistance through a friend from local attorney Lee Danforth.

Refusing medical treatment for PTSD, Matheson pushes through flashbacks and blackouts, raging at his wife’s trail of drugs and men and the thoughts of what his five-year-old daughter must have experienced. Hampered by dying witnesses, homes and offices torched, and a dirty detective, Lee and Matheson skirt the edges of legality in their search for the wife and child. As Hurricane Emelda barrels toward the Lowcountry, the maelstrom uncovers the nasty truth and Matheson, with Lee’s help, must learn the true meaning of family.