Above is the Cover for my fourth novel In The Lake due out in May in paperback and ebook. Richard Stroud, who did the cover for my first novel, did the cover for this one also. I told him sort of what I wanted, and he took the mush in my head and made it into something presentable.

In The Lake is a sequel to my first novel In The Sticks. Lyle and Cheryl are back, but this time they go on vacation and of course run into a murder—it’s funny how that keeps happening to them. A woman’s body is found floating in the lake with a single stab wound. A short-handed local deputy, Teri Snow, asks Lyle to assist with the investigation. Lyle discovers the woman is part of a group of millionaires who live in a gated community on the north end of the lake. Every Friday night they have a party filled with sex, drugs and rock and roll. Did things get out of hand? Did one of the woman’s local boy toys get tired of being used? Did her husband get jealous, and kill her in a fit of rage?

It sounds racy like another Fifty Shades of Grey—don’t worry, I don’t do racy. My wife read it and never blushed once, and she blushes when she sees Donald Duck, because he’s not wearing pants.

It has a lot of good minor characters and of course seven gazillion suspects. (Up until the second to the last chapter where the secret is revealed, my wife was still guessing whodunit.) It keeps things moving, and it’ll keep you guessing. I’m not sure what else you could want from a mystery.

For those of you who haven’t read In the Sticks yet, In The Lake works as a
stand-alone novel, or you could click on the thumbnail below and catch up on the background of this couple who keep running into dead bodies.