The Lena Padget Mysteries Series

Southern PI Lena Padget’s hunt for a missing coed leads her into a deadly mystery born in the fires of the ATF’s Branch Davidian siege in Waco, Texas.   Though still haunted by ghosts from her past, Lena Padget has made a good life for herself in Lexington, Kentucky, as a private eye specializing in cases involving abused women and children. But Lena’s latest case threatens her romantic relationship with her live-in lover, police detective Lt. Joel Mendez. Hired by the family of college student Cheryl Dunkirk, who disappeared while serving as an intern for the US Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, Lena is working the same missing person’s case that Joel is officially exploring—albeit from a different angle.   But Cheryl’s fate may be linked to a series of mysterious deaths of ATF agents who were involved in the disastrous raid on the Branch Davidian cult’s complex, and Joel and Lena’s personal issues will have to be put aside when an ice-cold serial killer’s insatiable hunger for blood turns their professional competition into something deadly.   Fortunes of the Dead chronicles PI Lena Padget’s second gripping excursion into the darkest corners of human experience. A story of blind rage, vengeance, madness, and murder that crackles with suspense, it will appeal to readers of Karin Slaughter and Laura Lippmann.   Fortunes of the Dead is the 2nd book in the Lena Padget Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.  

A fearless female private investigator in the South takes on a satanic cult that practices human sacrifice in this gripping Shamus Award–winning mystery.   Seven years ago Lena Padget’s life exploded when Jeff Hayes, her devil-worshipping brother-in-law, killed her sister and two-year-old nephew. The horrific double-murder hardened the once-gentle Kentucky native and compelled her to leave graduate school in order to help protect abused and endangered women from human monsters.   Now Hayes and his sadistic partner in satanism, Archie Valetta, have been inexplicably released on parole. Lena’s past has returned with a vengeance to haunt her—and to prey on yet another frightened mother and her helpless child. Approached by Valetta’s desperate ex-wife, Eloise, Lena will do everything in her power to prevent history from repeating itself. Otherwise, Eloise’s four-year-old son will be the next innocent victim.   Before Laura Lippman’s Tess Monaghan and Karin Slaughter’s Sara Linton, there was Lena Padget. The winner of the Shamus Award for Best First Private Eye Novel, Satan’s Lambs marked the acclaimed debut of author Lynn Hightower’s tough-as-nails, sexy, and smart female sleuth on a fictional PI scene long dominated by male mystery writers and established Hightower as a force to be reckoned with in crime fiction.   Satan’s Lambs is the 1st book in the Lena Padget Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.  

Accused of murdering her child, a suspected sufferer of Munchausen syndrome by proxy seeks help from Southern private eye Lena Padget, in this riveting thriller.   Lena Padget has dedicated her life to helping women in trouble, but she’s never dealt with a case as desperate and complex as that of Emma Marsden, who recently lost her infant son to a fatal liver ailment. The pediatrician who treated the child has accused the devastated mother of poisoning her son. Dr. Theodore Tundridge firmly believes that the tragedy was the result of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, which can cause sufferers to inflict harm on others to draw attention to themselves. Now Emma is terrified that Children and Family Services will take her teenage daughter away from her.   Lena’s search for the truth leads her into the dark, shadowy regions of the medical establishment—where a nightmare of unethical science may be unfolding behind the doors of Dr. Tundridge’s hospital pathology laboratory—and into troubling areas of her enigmatic client’s psyche. What initially appeared to be a case of medical malpractice and character assassination suddenly takes a sharp and dangerously unexpected turn, setting Lena on a race to untangle a twisted web of secrets before more children die.   Shamus Award–winning author Lynn Hightower delivers a must-read for fans of Karin Slaughter, Laura Lippman, and Marcia Muller—a powerful story of medicine, motherhood, and madness that will stay with the reader long after the mystery’s surprising denouement.   When Secrets Die is the 3rd book in the Lena Padget Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.