Margins
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Misted Pines
Series · 5 books · 2022-2026

Books in series

The Girl in the Mist book cover
#1

The Girl in the Mist

2022

Renowned author Delphine Larue needs a haven. A crazed fan has gone over the deep end, and she's not safe. Her security team has suggested a house by a lake. Secluded. Private. Far away. In a beautiful area of the Northwest close to the sleepy town of Misted Pines. It's perfect. So perfect, Delphine has just moved in, and she's thinking she'll stay there forever. Until she sees the girl in the mist. After that, everything changes. Delphine quickly learns that Misted Pines isn't so sleepy. A little girl has gone missing, and the town is in the grips of terror and tragedy. The local sheriff isn't up for the job. The citizens are up in arms. And as the case unfolds, the seedy underbelly of a quiet community is exposed, layer by layer. But most importantly, girls are dying. There seems to be only one man they trust to find out what's happening. The mysterious Cade Bohannan.
The Girl in the Woods book cover
#2

The Girl in the Woods

2023

This body would be the last for Zachariah Lazarus… The Crystal Killer’s latest casualty was discovered in a sleepy town in the Pacific Northwest, Misted Pines. His years in the FBI, and tracking the Crystal Killer, have taken their toll on Rus. He lost his marriage to the job. And the burdens he carries for the victims was crushing him. Misted Pines has recently survived a killer’s rampage and a town scandal that made global news. The media was primed to devour a new story. So Rus already has his work cut out for him. But it’s more. Something is just not right with this latest victim. As Rus works with the local sheriff to unravel the mystery, the victim’s employer, Lucinda Bonner, decides she’s going to do everything she can to help. To help Rus find the killer. To help Rus survive the hunt. To help Rus navigate the intricate, and sometimes sordid, history of the town of Misted Pines. And to help Rus let go of his burdens.
The Woman by the Lake book cover
#3

The Woman by the Lake

2024

Nadia Williams needs somewhere peaceful to sort through her grief after her mother is brutally murdered. She finds a cozy cabin at the side of a tranquil lake in the quaint town of Misted Pines in the Pacific Northwest. The minute she arrives, she knows it’s perfect. The very night of her arrival, however, someone—or something—is scratching at her window. The next morning, she meets her one and only neighbor, Doc Riggs. He’s a rough, good-time guy who rubs Nadia wrong immediately. They clash, and neither of them are happy to be sharing their lake. But soon, Nadia learns the lore around her cabin, and how the townsfolk are certain it’s haunted by the ghost of the man who was murdered there fifteen years before. Riggs and Nadia are suddenly thrown into a tangled web of history, betrayal, grief, secrets, with only one thing certain. Someone—or something—wants them off that lake.
The Woman Left Behind book cover
#4

The Woman Left Behind

2025

There are two dead bodies in Idaho, and the gun used to kill them has been traced back to a sixteen-year-old robbery in Misted Pines. Sheriff Harry Moran has a broken heart and a stack of case files on his desk that the corrupt sheriff who came before him might have bungled. Or he may have framed innocent people. The first case Harry dives into, the woman left behind lives just a block away from his office. When Lillian Rainier opens the door to the sheriff, Harry, who’s been a dead man walking since his wife died, comes back to life. As for Lillian, she’s had a crush on Harry for forever, Harry showing at her door, and how he is when he does only makes her fall deeper. As Harry and his team dive into these suspicious cases, Harry and Lillian have to figure out what to do with all they feel for each other, how hard it hits them, and how deep it goes. But as a voice from the past becomes a witness in the present, and Harry and his crew dig deeper, they sense something sinister happened years ago. As they weave together the threads of a cold case, they realize how messy it is. Worse, the man behind the mess is desperately cleaning it up … And no one in Misted Pines is safe.
The Woman From Nowhere book cover
#5

The Woman From Nowhere

2026

After a heartbreaking betrayal, Mabel Adams reinvents herself for the fourth time. Regardless of the alarming reputation of the deceptively sleepy town of Misted Pines, she decides to move all the way across the country to start yet again. Mabel has a one-night stand with a mountain man who rocks her world in bed but doesn't tell her his name. The next day, after receiving a threatening note from her neighbors, she discovers she's living next to an extremist cult where the women go in and are never seen again. After serving, former Navy SEAL Hutch Hutchison is living a peaceful life on his patch in the mountains outside Misted Pines. He's been burned so many times by women, he's happy to train his guard dogs, play his guitar, live remote, and most of all, quiet. Until he hooks up with a beautiful woman who lives just down the way. And then he discovers she's been threatened by the cult next door. Hutch's protective instinct sparks, and he decides his next mission is to keep Mabel safe at all costs. But there's something even hinkier about that cult than Hutch or local law enforcement expect. As Hutch executes the riskiest mission of his life—keeping Mabel safe at the same time keeping both of their hearts intact—Hutch and the Sheriff's Department try to unravel the mystery of The Lion and The Lamb before it's too late. Because Mabel is in their crosshairs. And Hutch is not about to allow her to disappear.

Author

Kristen Ashley
Kristen Ashley
Author · 122 books

Kristen Ashley was born in Gary, Indiana, USA. She nearly killed her mother and herself making it into the world, seeing as she had the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck (already attempting to accessorise and she hadn't taken her first breath!). Kristen grew up in Brownsburg, Indiana but has lived in Denver, Colorado and the West Country of England. Thus she has been blessed to have friends and family around the globe. Her posse is loopy (to say the least) but loopy is good when you want to write. Kristen was raised in a house with a large and multi-generational family. They lived on a very small farm in a small town in the heartland and existed amongst the strains of Glenn Miller, The Everly Brothers, REO Speedwagon and Whitesnake (and the wardrobes that matched). Needless to say, growing up in a house full of music, clothes and love was a good way to grow up. And as she keeps growing up, it keeps getting better.

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