I just finished reading K.C. McRae’s Shotgun Moon, a standalone mystery from Midnight Ink. It’s really more than a mystery. It’s on the dark side. It’s a thriller and it’s suspense. The main character killed the man who raped her and now returns to Montana to get her life back to normal.

‘Then the great metal gate clanged open, and Merry McCoy stepped through to the dusty asphalt outside for the first time in four years.”

It has family drama and well-developed dysfunctional characters.

“Aunt Shirlene’s cigarette-etched voice rasped down the line. ‘Hey, it’s me. I’m down at the police station with Lauri.'”

And it has romance with an old flame, a cop who’s now married to someone else.

“She wanted to slide inside his clothing like liquid, glide across his skin, surround him, dissolve and soak through his pores.”

Shotgun Moon is a standalone, but if someday K.C. wants to bring Merry McCoy back in a sequel, it would work just fine. Great pacing, good writing, and interesting characters make this one highly recommended.

This author with many names is way more than a cozy writer, although most of her novels are cozy series. A resident of Northern Colorado, I first met K.C. as Cricket McRae, author of the Sophie Mae Home Crafting series which features a recipe or instructions for making a range of items from soap to cheese.

Since then, using the pseudonym Bailey Cates, K.C. has launched the Katie Lightfoot Magical Bakery series. The Elliana Allbright Enchanted Garden series, written as Bailey Cattrell, launches in January 2016.

You can read more about K.C. and her works at the Bailey Cates Cattrell/Cricket McRae website.