FBI Special Agent Dawna Shepherd Mysteries Series

Fleeing the cops, a wily Ponzi-schemer disguised in a black hat and chin whiskers is hiding among the Plain Folk wintering in a Sarasota suburb nicknamed “the Amish Las Vegas.” Trying to smoke out the fugitive, FBI Special Agent Dawna Shepherd tangles again with persistent and hunky bounty hunter Tommy O'Brien. She finds herself suiting up with the Florida Suncoast State University women's basketball coach and players to get her man. But which man? Bonus story: this ebook also includes “Boot Scoot” in which Dawna first meets Fugitive Team Leader O'Brien. Both short stories first appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. All of Dawna's earlier stories are collected in Run & Gun: 12 Tales of Girls with Guns, an ebook by Diana Deverell. Dawna’s latest adventure, “Blown,” is also available as an ebook short story.

FBI Special Agent Dawna Shepherd confronts a Warsaw crime boss, a New York City bounty hunter, and a Homeland Security agent cowboying in the middle of the North Sea, among others. She solves crimes ranging from human trafficking to health care fraud, illegal sports betting, nuclear smuggling, and more. Foiling devious plots from Silicon Valley to Ulan Bator, Dawna shuts down not only the FBI's most wanted but any crook fool enough to mess with her family. Eleven of these stories appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. The twelfth is available only in this collection. "Latin Groove," takes Dawna back to FBI basics—bank robbery—and her home court of Texas. She confronts a bad girl who's sharp as a pistol and carrying one too. "Boot Scoot" and "Texas Two-Step," both nominated for the annual Macavity best short story awards by members of Mystery Readers International, are included in these tales spanning a dozen years of Dawna's FBI career.

Dawna's hot on the trail of a renegade NSA contractor. Mickey Cartwright "blew the whistle" on US cyber surveillance of European leaders and was charged with espionage. Now, he's emerged from his Russian sanctuary to testify at a European Justice Court. The Court is meeting secretly in Poland a few miles from the Russian border. Dawna manages to snatch her target and escape into a December blizzard. But others also have plans for Cartwright. With death at their heels, Dawna and her prisoner dash over snow-capped hills and through frosty woods, desperate to outrun a ruthless pursuer. Editor and best-selling writer Kevin J. Anderson praised "Blown" as an "entertaining spy caper . . . very real and exciting" when he introduced the story in Pulse Pounders, the January 2015 Kobo Special edition of Fiction River anthology magazine. As a bonus, this ebook of "Blown" also includes "Polonaise: A Dawna Shepherd Short Story" originally published in 2001 in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. Her first visit to Poland—but not her last.

Three days before Christmas, 2000, and FBI Special Agent Dawna Shepherd’s in Warsaw, bodyguarding a key female witness in the trial of ruthless but runty crime boss Mike the Midget. The Polish gangster wants his ex-girlfriend Basia dead before she can testify and ruin his holiday. Dawna has to stay one step ahead of the local mafioski. Dawna puts the six-foot-five inch two-hundred-and-thirty-pound woman in Kevlar and size seventeen hightops and fakes a play to confuse the crooks. Can her scheme work in a crazy adolescent country prone to bizarre klutziness? Will Basia make it safely in and out of court? Or will the only thing under her Christmas tree be an extra-large coffin? First published in 2000, “Polonaise” was Dawna’s second appearance in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. Later adventures are collected in Run & Gun: A Dozen Tales of Girls with Guns. Dawna also plays a supporting role Diana Deverell’s new political thriller, Bitch Out of Hell. A Macavity Award finalist acclaimed for “sharp storytelling” (Publishers Weekly) in her international thriller series, Diana Deverell brings you an exciting short mystery. Buy “Polonaise” now and take a holiday in Poland!

Hoping to heal her broken heart, FBI Special Agent Dawna Shepherd takes a break from busting bad guys to vacation at SpyGirl Fantasy Camp. But the two Russian mobsters waiting for her aren't actors pretending they're bad. These goons plan to bust her ticker for good. A story that answers the simple question: Does a hardboiled FBI agent ever get to have fun? As a bonus, included with this story is "Hungarian Dance No. 5," the first published story featuring Dawna and her friend, ex-Secret Service Agent Ladyshimarray Harms.

FBI Special Agent Dawna Shepherd goes undercover to get close to a crook who's been defrauding auto insurance companies for two decades. A confidential informant ratted out aging Clayton D. Cooper. Nailed him as ringleader of a major northern Virginia gang. Yet sophisticated FBI data mining programs detect no sign of Cooper's criminal activities. To learn how Cooper evades the software, Dawna has to convince Cooper she's as dirty as he is. If she succeeds, will he ask her to ride in the multiply-insured "nail" car when Cooper's "hammer" car crashes into it? Will she survive to file the bogus medical claims that are part of the scam? And will her injuries be faked or real? A Derringer and Macavity Award finalist acclaimed for "sharp storytelling" (Publishers Weekly), Diana Deverell brings Dawna to the dangerous side of criminal investigation. Buy "Dubstep: A Dawna Shepherd Short Story" today and discover with Dawna how risky insurance fraud can be.

FBI Special Agent Dawna Shepherd wants to have a blast—literally. Based at the International Law Enforcement Academy in Budapest, she's exploding a car bomb and blowing up the crumbling pre-War building beside it. The ambo himself will give a press conference as part of the kickoff event for the Academy's new post-blast investigation seminar. A big deal, and if anything goes wrong, her FBI career is toast. But she planned carefully and she's confident she has everything under control. Until her State Department pal Casey Collins who specializes in counterterrorism analysis shows up at the blast site four hours before the event. Followed by the demolition contractor rep who demands a last-minute inspection of the building. What's the disaster they fear will happen? And how high a body count do they predict? Dawna has to find out fast or more than her career will end today. A Derringer and Macavity Award finalist acclaimed for "sharp storytelling" (Publishers Weekly) in her international thriller series, Diana Deverell brings Dawna and Casey together for the first time in this riveting short story. Buy "Black Powder Boogie: A Dawna Shepherd Short Story" and enjoy this exploration of one of the most dangerous jobs on earth.

Dawna Shepherd loves her family, working as an FBI Special Agent, and playing basketball. She’s celebrating Christmas in her home town when a bounty hunter pursues her college student brother home from Lubbock. Certain that Fugitive Team Leader Tommy O’Brien is chasing the wrong quarry, Dawna stops him cold at the Shepherd front door. But she knows O’Brien won’t give up. And all her crime-fighter instincts are screaming that the bounty hunter is going to ruin this holiday for someone she loves. Can law-abiding Dawna find a way to save Christmas? Nominated by members of Mystery Readers International for the 2003 Macavity Award for best mystery short story, “Boot Scoot” shows a softer side to the hardnosed FBI agent who appears regularly in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and whose past adventures are collected in Run & Gun: A Dozen Tales of Girls with Guns. Dawna plays a supporting role in three Casey Collins international thrillers, the most recent release being China Box.

Standing in line at her hometown bank in Texas, FBI Special Agent Dawna Shepherd witnesses her first real bank robbery. She's in Texas to recruit female and minority agents. The bad girl robbing her bank is sharp as a pistol. And packing one, too. "Latin Groove" takes Dawna back to FBI basics, pursuing a bank robber. The female FBI agent and woman criminal are each on their own turf. Can good old girl Dawna win a battle with bad young Bandita when they share a home court? A Derringer and Macavity Award finalist acclaimed for "sharp storytelling" (Publishers Weekly), Diana Deverell brings you a tale that sprawls across West Texas and tests Dawna's crime-solving power. Buy "Latin Groove: A Dawna Shepherd Short Story" and get up close and personal with the Lone Star State, Texas cops, and down-home crime.

FBI Special Agent Dawna Shepherd played basketball all four years at the University of Texas. Exactly the right cover to get herself hired by a shady medical equipment manufacturer. Former college cheerleaders and athletes make up big pharma's hottest sales force. Winning personalities matter more than scientific training. The company's device tested safe for asthma patients. Not for women with histories of preterm labor. Though anecdotal evidence suggests it may help them. Dawna has more anecdotes. About wannabe moms whose hearts are damaged forever. She fakes a passion for selling. Closes in on the smooth-talker who gulls unwitting staff into marketing the product illegally. A profit-driven practice that fails to warn pregnant woman they're risking their own lives. Dawna's got only one more training session to catch the company's wily marketing czar. But her cover is wearing thin. Can she outsmart her prime suspect? Or should she try to out-dumb him? A Derringer and Macavity Award finalist acclaimed for "sharp storytelling" (Publishers Weekly), Diana Deverell brings you a childless heroine passionate to make the world a safer place. Buy "Dallas Hoedown: A Dawna Shepherd Short Story" today and enjoy a suspenseful tale about moms, big pharma, and the FBI.

FBI Special Agent Dawna Shepherd wants to know why—and how—an unknown hacker is cyber-stalking an obscure software engineer in the Bay Area. Hacking's not Dawna's specialty. But her sister Bettijean is the engineer whose life and livelihood are on the line. And nobody messes with Dawna's family. She'll use every trick in her FBI book to find who's harming Bettijean. Even so, can a low-tech Texan hope to prevail in Silicon Valley? A Derringer and Macavity Award finalist acclaimed for "sharp storytelling" (Publishers Weekly), Diana Deverell brings you a story that puts Dawna in direct conflict with the princes of high-tech who rule Silicon Valley. Buy "Silicon Valley Tango: A Dawna Shepherd Short Story" and enjoy an epic battle fought by Dawna-the-jock in nerddom.

FBI Special Agent Dawna Shepherd goes undercover in Romania to bust a criminal gang luring impoverished young women into sexual slavery.   Posing with Police Cadet Stela Dragomir as penniless sisters seeking hotel-maid jobs in Western Europe, the two law enforcement agents hope to force Vlad, the gang's sleazy recruiter, to expose the organization's bosses.   A high-stakes operation with one big risk. Dawna doesn't speak a word of Romanian. Pretending to be both mute and deaf, she can't open her mouth without blowing her cover.   If Dawna can pull this off, she and Stela will nail Vlad, rescue his latest recruits, and stop his gang from victimizing more women. But if their plan goes wrong, Dawna and Stela could be shipped to Milan's movable human auction. Will they end up sold to the highest bidders?   A Derringer and Macavity Award finalist acclaimed for "sharp storytelling" (Publishers Weekly) in her international thriller series, Diana Deverell brings you a dramatic tale from dangerous world of human trafficking.   Buy "Hokey Pokey Bucuresti: A Dawna Shepherd Short Story" and cheer for Dawna and her local-cop partner as they go after some seriously bad dudes.

Every year, FBI Special Agent Dawna Shepherd gets sucked in by March Madness. The fever strikes harder when the Big Dance is set in Texas. With the Final Four happening on her own turf, Dawna has to take leave from the Bureau and fly home. Lucky for Lupe, her former teammate, now coaching women's basketball at an East Texas college. Lupe's team is headed for the tournament. And Lupe worries a betting scandal is brewing around a key player. Will illegal sports gambling take Lupe's team out of the running? Dawna has to find the answer. A Derringer and Macavity Award finalist acclaimed for "sharp storytelling" (Publishers Weekly), Diana Deverell brings you a fast-paced story about gambling addiction, family love, and basketball. Buy "Texas Two-Step: A Dawna Shepherd Short Story" and enjoy a tale that was a finalist for the Macavity Award for best mystery short story.

FBI Special Agent Dawna Shepherd teams up with a long haul trucker to nail a rogue Department of Transportation safety inspector. The crooked government employee extorts money from drivers of Middle Eastern appearance who haul hazardous materials through New Jersey.   Under cover as the trucker's big-haired flashy wife, Dawna has her ears on alert when the inspector leads up to his payoff demand. Until beribboned Precious, the third member of the team loses her cool.   Will Dawna get her partner under control fast enough to save the op?   A Derringer and Macavity Award finalist acclaimed for "sharp storytelling" (Publishers Weekly), Diana Deverell draws on her four years as a trucker to explore the problems that arise when a driver doesn't "look like the rest of the guys out there."   Buy "Hazmat Heel-and-Toe: A Dawna Shepherd Short Story" and take a suspenseful trip to New Jersey in a gleaming Peterbilt hauling a tanker full of dangerously corrosive liquid.

Her BS detector clicking madly, FBI Special Agent Dawna Shepherd discovers a rat on the Danish ferry sailing from Norway to England.   Not a stinky rodent, but a completely odorless Homeland Security Agent with a hidden agenda.   Unlike the eighteen East European cops attending the shipboard conference, the agent organizing it has no scent, no humor, and no bling. Not a partner Dawna automatically trusts.   The agent deserves her suspicion. Though the conference deals with illegal Chinese migration through the cops' home countries, the venue and the program don't promote education on that topic.   What's the agent's real goal? And why is Dawna's partner keeping her in the dark?   He must believe she'll oppose his plan. Which means she has to stop him now.   Or risk finding herself, the eighteen cops, and fifteen hundred civilian passengers at the mercy of a cowboying federal agent.   A Derringer and Macavity Award finalist acclaimed for "sharp storytelling" (Publishers Weekly), Diana Deverell ferries you to the middle of the North Sea on a minicruise heading for disaster.   Buy "Dirty Bop to Blighty: A Dawna Shepherd Short Story" today and sail on the Queen of Scandinavia to a dramatic climax.

FBI Special Agent Dawna Shepherd's training across Siberia with the USA women's junior basketball team. She'll join them on the bench at their next crucial game in the capital of Mongolia.   Undercover and unofficial, Dawna acts like a die-hard hoops fan on summer vacation while she tries to solve a big problem for her friend, the team coach. Someone is sending anonymous email threats to Alyssa, the team's powerhouse forward, and Alyssa's not playing well. The team won't win in Ulan Bator unless the relentless attacks stop.   Dawna keeps an eye out for Alyssa while she struggles to identify the troublemaker in the jam-packed cars of the Trans-Mongolian Railway. A tougher job when she's targeted by pair of pickpockets riding the same train.   At the last stop before the Mongolian border, Dawna fights off the two thugs on the platform and she misses the moment when Alyssa is injured during practice nearby. Was the foiled robbery really a well-timed distraction?   Is the plot against Alyssa more complex and dangerous than it first appeared?   Alyssa's already off her game. Can Dawna crack this case before the player ends up out of the game forever?   A Derringer and Macavity Award finalist acclaimed for "sharp storytelling" (Publishers Weekly), Diana Deverell brings you an action-packed story in an exotic locale.   Buy "Mongol Mash: A Dawna Shepherd Short Story" today and make an unforgettable journey on one of the world's most famous trains.

FBI Special Agent Dawna Shepherd's teaching at Quantico East, the Bureau's overseas training academy. Tomorrow, she'll stage a mock bank robbery for the Central European cops who are her students.   Tonight, though, she's enjoying dinner with the pair of federal agents from other agencies who are on her team. Budapest's Café Cristal was highly recommended by a local.   The café is also popular with Hungarian gangs, she realizes, when she spots two rival bosses, their lieutenants, and four bodyguards at nearby tables.   Instead of bringing three orders of goulash to her table, their waiter and other restaurant staff disappear. Like they know all Hell is about to break loose.   What's coming and how can Dawna stop it?   A Derringer and Macavity Award finalist acclaimed for "sharp storytelling" (Publishers Weekly) in her international thriller series, Diana Deverell brings you her first published short story featuring the basketball star turned FBI agent.   Buy "Hungarian Dance No. 5: A Dawna Shepherd Short Story" and enjoy the first of sixteen adventures starring the hard-charging FBI Special Agent.  

March Madness is a month away. FBI Special Agent Dawna Shepherd is off-duty from her temp assignment in Seattle. And on board Amtrak's Coast Starlight, headed for Eugene. Tonight, she'll cheer for the Lady Ducks' basketball team, ranked number three in the nation.   Fate trumps that plan when her train stops in Portland. The number one criminal on the FBI's most-wanted list boards her double-decker coach and claims the aisle seat three rows in front of her.   Dawna's spent the last several months hunting the DB Cooper copycat. Like the original airplane hijacker, the copycat extorted a huge ransom and escaped by parachuting into a mountain wilderness.   But now, Dawna has him in her sights. She swiftly figures out how to arrest and remove him from the train at the next stop. But in her quick telcon with her boss in Seattle, he nixes her arrest plan. Instead, an interagency team of cops and commandos will confront the fugitive in Eugene with overwhelming force. All Dawna has to do is keep her eye on the perp until the arrest team takes over.   She doesn't argue. She'll do as she's told.   Has the veteran FBI agent finally learned to follow orders?   Not a chance.   A Derringer and Macavity Award finalist acclaimed for "sharp storytelling" (Publishers Weekly), Diana Deverell brings you an entertaining tale of hot pursuit. Buy "Lonesome Whistle: A Dawna Shepherd Short Story" and ride along as Dawna applies her uniquely ornery crime-solving approach to the case.