The first in a powerful new series from the author of THE RAINE STOCKTON DOG MYSTERIES... Almost two years ago the sleepy little community of Dogleg Island was the scene of one of the most brutal crimes in Florida history. The only eye witnesses were a border collie puppy and a police officer. Since that time Flash has grown from a puppy into a vital part of the Dogleg Island Police Department, and has lived happily with the two people who rescued him on that horrible night: Deputy Sheriff Ryan Grady and Police Chief Aggie Malone. Now the trial of the century is about to begin. The defendant, accused of slaughtering his parents in their beach home, maintains his innocence. Aggie and Ryan, the top witnesses for the prosecution, are convinced he is lying. But only Flash knows the truth. And with another murder to solve, a tangle of conflicting evidence to sort out, and a brutal storm on the way, the truth may come too late... for all of them. "An ample murder mystery with an enthralling protagonist... thoroughly entertaining..." —Kirkus Reviews More praise for the work of Donna Ball: “A maelstrom of suspense… gripping, intense” —Rendezvous “A major talent of the genre” —Publisher’s Weekly

The second book in the riveting new Dogleg Island mystery series from the author of FLASH. Still recovering from the traumatic events of the past year, newlyweds Aggie Malone, police chief of Dogleg Island, and Deputy Sheriff Ryan Grady are looking forward to a casual day trip to Wild Horse Island, a nearby nature preserve, with their precocious—and uncannily perceptive—border collie, Flash. But when Flash discovers a body in a shallow grave on the island, and Aggie and Ryan learn of an attack on the park ranger, a tangled knot of conspiracy, murder and deception begins to unfold. Fifteen hundred miles away, an ex-con and a fifteen year old girl embark upon a crime spree that will earn them the nicknames “Bonnie and Clyde”. As they make their way inexorably south, Aggie, Grady and Flash are thrust into the middle of a murder investigation that leads to the arrest of one of their neighbors and the attempted suicide of another. When a search of the dead girl’s belongings reveals a priceless emerald bracelet and two of the island's most popular residents go missing, the puzzle becomes even more complicated. Grady and Aggie struggle to put all the pieces into place while Flash, ever obsessed with understanding the human condition, wrestles with a more painful dilemma: how do you tell the good guys from the bad guys when they are so often the same person?

There’s nothing like family during the holidays... unless one of those family members is in jail, and you’re the cop who was responsible for putting him there. Police Chief Aggie Malone is facing her first Christmas as a married woman, and hoping for a relatively uneventful holiday in the quiet Gulf Coast community of Dogleg Island where she, along with her perspicacious border collie Flash, is in charge of keeping the peace. She is still trying to find her place in the big, boisterous Grady family, but unlike Flash—and her own husband, Deputy Sheriff Ryan Grady—Aggie does not see the appeal of the holiday, and the magic of the season is completely lost on her. The old-fashioned Christmas Grady has planned for his bride begins to unravel when Aggie’s investigation into a homicide hit-and-run leads to the arrest of her own brother-in-law and exposes a crime syndicate that’s responsible for spreading millions in counterfeit bills throughout the southeast. A police informant turns up dead, and evidence suggests his murder may be the result of corruption at the highest levels of law enforcement. Flash, who is an expert at putting things together, understands that all these pieces of the puzzle are related, and with Aggie’s help they’ll soon be able to see the big picture. But not even Flash can foresee the demons their search for the truth will unearth. When the shadows from the past reach forward to cloud their future, Aggie, Grady, and Flash find the limits of their loyalty tested, even as they discover the lengths to which they will go to protect the ones they love.

This is the book readers have been waiting for…Dogleg Island Police Chief Aggie Malone has spent years searching for the identity of her birth father. Now, thanks to a home DNA test, she has a lead… but it’s taking her in a direction she never could have imagined, and desperately does not want to go. Because the evidence suggests that Aggie could be the daughter of the infamous Angelo, head of the deadly Ghost Syndicate crime empire. Matters become more complicated when Aggie’s canine partner, Flash, discovers an abandoned child on the beach. The little girl can tell them nothing about how she got there, but she is clutching a Santa Muerte statuette—a symbol of protection in Hispanic culture, but also the notorious insignia for a drug cartel. Aggie’s husband, Deputy Sheriff Ryan Grady, becomes involved when the case intersects with his own investigation into the Ghost Syndicate, leading them all down a dark path filled with treachery and deceit in which no one is above suspicion. Grady unearths a secret organization with sinister connections to the past that may provide the key to bringing down the Ghost Syndicate. Aggie comes closer to discovering Angelo’s true identity and, perhaps, the truth about her own parentage. But even as the final pieces of the puzzle fall into place, a plan for revenge that has been decades in the making is unfolding around them. Unless Aggie, Grady and Flash can stop it they risk losing everything they love… even Dogleg Island itself.Don’t miss this shocking conclusion to the “Angel Trilogy”!