When private investigator Erika Adams is assigned to find the missing son of a billionaire, it doesn’t take long to discover that plenty of decent people had good reasons to want him dead.

Suspected of being a serial sexual predator, the billionaire’s son left a trail of victims, shattered lives, and no shortage of enemies. Yet wealth sometimes lets extremely powerful men redefine the rules, and solving the case could earn Erika the influential ally she desperately needs to repair her unjustly derailed career.

Now needing to work alongside and simultaneously deceive the Sheriff of Heron County and a handful of his most trusted men, Erika discovers a county with a legal system in shambles and a web of long-hidden secrets reaching far beyond a single disappearance. As the investigation closes in on a killer, the full consequences of crossing the finish line may prove to be greater than she ever imagined. In the most difficult case of her life, will stopping a murderer be the worst crime of all?

Executioner’s Psalms is the first novel in the Heron County Mysteries. It’s a gripping blend of suspense, romance, humor, lust, and morally complex choices. Sometimes a slow burn. Sometimes almost cozy. Until it isn’t. This is Heron County.

A note for advance readers: At heart, Executioner’s Psalms is a character-driven literary crime novel, using its mysteries to explore ambition, class, sacrifice, the search for meaning, and the roles people struggle to navigate after they have paid dearly to become them.

Advance readers are explorers, and debut novels are truly unknown territory. One useful landmark: Erika arrives in Heron County with a clear objective and considerable tunnel vision. She is intensely driven, but not ideally equipped for a place like Heron County, a county governed by its own unwritten rules, with multiple large criminal interests already operating independently, exploiting failing institutions and pursuing profit unencumbered by ethical limits. Her focus is narrow; the world she's stepped into is a sleepy-looking deviant.

The pleasures of the story are cumulative: getting to know the recurring cast, understanding the county they inhabit, watching relationships and moral choices acquire consequences, and seeing fair-play clues and seemingly separate threads gather meaning over time. Expect crass and occasionally inappropriate thoughts, conversations, very crass jokes, and banter; sexually frank moments; romance; and violence. There is plenty of suspense, but this isn’t intended as a breakneck thriller. It also borrows some comforts from cozies—camaraderie, humor, a recurring cast, and a world readers can settle into—but the crimes, sexuality, violence, and moral consequences are far from cozy. Emotional stakes, character development, and the consequences of their choices matter more than maintaining imminent danger on every page.