At the promising start to a new detective series by the author of the Jill Smith mysteries, a young priest is found hanged in particularly compromising circumstances in his parish church in Phoenix, Ariz. To determine whether the death was suicide or murder, the diocese's bishop calls upon Kiernan O'Shaughnessy, a young medical examiner turned private eye. Kiernan runs into obstacles at every turn, not the least of which are the cremation of the priest's body before an autopsy could be performed and her name forged on his false death certificate. While struggling with her own painful memories dredged up by the case, Kiernan uncovers a clan of hostile mountain villagers, a bizarre castle, a hidden shelter for abused women, and the diocese's plan to build an elegant retreat-resort in the nearby White Bone Mountains. Feisty Kiernan has appeal, but her debut is overburdened with subplots, complaints about the weather and hard-to-credit emotional conflicts regarding Kiernan's sister. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The wife of a brain-damaged hit-and-run victim hires Kiernan O'Shaughnessy, medical examiner turned private eye, to find out who was behind the wheel of the car that hit her husband, Blending forensic detail, psychological insight, and thrills galore, Rogue Wave is top-of-the-line suspense fare.

When Kiernan O'Shaughnessy shows up at the San Diego bluffs off Gliderport to watch the filming of a new movie, she hardly expects to run into a media circus. It turns out that a talented, confident nineteen-year-old stuntwoman named Lark Sondervoil has invited the press to watch her perform the Gaige Move - a notoriously difficult stunt, or "gag, " invented years earlier by a master gymnast named Greg Gaige. Gaige was killed in the middle of a stunt ten years earlier, and no one has ever performed up to his extraordinary standard. Until now. Expectations are high. But nobody - not the press, not the film crew, certainly not Kiernan herself - expects Lark's move to turn into disaster when she takes a misstep and plunges over the bluffs to her death. The filmmakers insist it's merely an accident - an occupational hazard of being in a dangerous profession. But Kiernan's curiosity about this case moves beyond the mere interests of justice. She had studied gymnastics herself once, long ago. And her teacher was none other than . . . Greg Gaige. As Kiernan relentlessly dogs the people who knew Lark, and who remember Greg, she exposes the darker side of the movie business. And she's forced to confront both the grim realities of the present, and the painful, half-buried ghosts of her past.

Bestselling mystery author Susan Dunlap, acclaimed winner of two Anthony Awards and a Macavity Award, brings us a powerful new novel featuring private detective—and former medical examiner—Kiernan O' Shaughnessy. Betrayed and set up to take the blame for a death caused by a deadly and highly contagious case of Lassa fever, Kiernan gets more than she bargained for when she responds to a call from an old college "friend." She knows that the death she's investigating could have truly dire consequences for the public if its cause is unleashed, inadvertently or otherwise. And the trail of clues she follows—from her base in San Diego to the Nevada desert—is agonizingly complex. Not helping matters is her houseman, the usually affable Brad Tchernak. Tchernak may be a marvelous cook, companion, and dog feeder. But he's feeling overlooked as a detective, and that has created tension between him and his employer. While Kiernan pursues her case, Tchernak takes on one of his own, investigating a hotshot geologist who has just returned from a potentially multimillion-dollar oil find in Central America. Of course, Tchernak's passion for this case may land him in mortal danger. And, as Kiernan investigates the suspicious and alarming death that could portend international disaster, she must grapple with her own demons—especially the stubborn self-reliance that may be her downfall. As the seemingly disparate cases intertwine, it becomes all too clear to Kiernan that she and Tchernak had better find what they're looking for, and fast, before they, too, become "bodies of evidence."