Secure the Ranch by Joyce Oroz

Synopsis:

Josephine Stuart, a fifty-year-old widow, is blessed and cursed with an overactive curiosity, a strong sense of right and wrong and a willingness to put herself on the line for her friends. Josephine has been hired to paint murals in the secluded Munger mansion, located at the top of a wooded mountain. Certain local reprobates have their reasons for wanting the Mungers to leave. Accidents, fires and the death of a forest ranger have everyone on edge. Josephine's curiosity drives her down the mountain, into the world of illegal activities and nefarious characters. Her situation becomes dire - no way to escape. One captor has a knife, the other has a rifle. Can she save herself and her friends?

About the Author:

Joyce Oroz raised her children and grew her commercial art and mural business. Painting was her whole life until seven years ago when she discovered writing. Joyce began writing children's stories and graduated to her first 400 page mystery novel, Secure the Ranch. She writes about the things she loves; painting, animals, California, relationships, mystery and adventure. Her ambition is to entertain, speed up the heartbeats, raise some hairs on the back of necks and make people laugh. She pulls her readers into Josephine's world and hopes they enjoy the ride. Joyce lives in Aromas, California with her husband and golden lab.

http://authorjoyceoroz.blogspot.com/

Compulsion by Jennifer Chase

When Serial Killers Terrorize a California Beach Community, One Woman Stands in Their Way

Emily Stone doesn't have a badge. But that hasn't stopped her from tracking down some of the West's most dangerous child-killers. Armed with a digital SLR camera, laptop computer and her trusty Beretta, Stone uses her innate gift for detective work to identify the perps -- and then anonymously e-mail the evidence to the cops.

Now, the hunt for two brazen serial killers on the loose right in her own coastal California town threatens to expose Stone's identity -- unraveling her carefully constructed cover and jeopardizing her life's work. But when she gets too close to the action, this razor-sharp hunter becomes the hunted. Cooperating with the handsome local police detective could be the only hope for stopping the rampage directed at unsuspecting young women -- and saving herself.

Can they piece together the clues in time? Compulsion mixes CSI-style investigation with a ripped-from-the-headlines plot and a dose of romance for a keeps-you-guessing, fast-paced and savvy thriller, right up until the shocking finale.

About the author:

Jennifer Chase holds a bachelor's degree in police forensics and a master's degree in criminology. Her intense curiosity in the psychological aspect of crime is what drives her to write crime fiction. She lives in California, where she's currently at work on her next book in the series.

Blog: www.authorjenniferchase.blogspot.com/
Website: www.jenniferchase.vpweb.com/