Soft Hearts

A Halloween Murder, a Dragon Suspect-and a Neighborhood Secret.

Harriett "Rett" Swinson is trying to rebuild her life after a failed marriage when a group of Halloween trick-or-treaters discovers her neighbor, retired English professor and poet Wanda Hightower, dead on her porch, stabbed in the back and through the heart. Was her killer a random psychopath in search of blood on All Hallow''s Eve-or one of the neighbors who helped with her lawn''s makeover gone wrong? Wanda claimed to have dirt on nearly everyone in their Downtown Raleigh neighborhood, so the list of suspects is long.

Finding the killer will require Rett to reconstruct Wanda''s turbulent past while weighing her growing attraction for Homicide Detective Darryl Schmidt against a desperate need for independence-and a growing feeling that an innocent man is being singled out by the police for the murder.

The first installment in the Rett Swinson Mystery Series, Soft Hearts explores how the fragile vulnerability of human beings can become their greatest strength.