Jaded confidence man Gabriel Karne is on the run. A literal snarling, slobbering guard dog nips at his heels. If he makes it over the chain-link fence, he vows to skip town for friendlier climes. Somewhere no one knows his name. It will be fine. Everything will be fine. Less than twenty-four hours on the island and Gabriel's had a nasty confrontation with two local good ol’ boys, earned a trespassing citation from an infuriating but compelling forest ranger, and offered to search for a missing person. So much for lying low. Being off his game only partially explains why Gabe would rather focus on a stranger’s bad luck than his own. Fact is, he's always had a soft spot for losers and maybe, just maybe, he's tired of the game. The Last Grift is the first installment in the Subtle Deceptions series, a small town mystery with romantic elements. The series, part of the Piedras Island and Veiled Intentions universe, is written in the third person and follows the unplanned adventures in the life and love of the disreputable Gabriel Karne.

Gabriel Karne is back The plan? Lie low on Heartstone Island and wait for the dumpster fire that is his past life to burn itself out. So far, so good. Until it isn't. Gabriel has avoided Ranger Man for days, made a few important repairs to his sailboat, and put a dent in the stack of dime-store mysteries Elton loaned him. Life is at least okay. Eight days in and his strategy crumbles like a wet cookie. His ex-partner-in-crime returns, but this time he is very dead. And wearing a baby blue tracksuit, which somehow makes his murder even worse. Is his body a message from the crime family they mutually pissed off? Did Peter have connections to Heartstone? And if he didn't, how the hell did he know he'd find Gabe there? With yet another exceedingly ill-timed murder, Gabe's luck is once again not the Good Kind. Then there's his simmering attraction to Casey, which he's actively sweeping underneath his mental throw rug. Lundin is definitely not Gabe's type. He's a walking-talking moral compass that never seems to cease pointing out everything he's sure is wrong about Gabe. But damn, that man's uniform fits him like a custom glove. Adding to it all, snow is in the forecast, there's a missing brush worker up the valley, and Calvin Perkins is still on the loose. Gabe's not even going to think about the spiders. Everything will be fine. FINE. Bait and Switch is book two in the Subtle Deception series.

Gabriel Karne is cautiously optimistic. Life seems to be settling down into a nice even keel. It’s a new year and the former con artist has a permanent-for-now address. Even Keith-the-cat seems to like it there. No more rickety sailboats and living out of go-bags for Gabriel Karne. No surprises. No dead bodies. Romance-wise, he and Ranger Man are easing into being a couple. A lifetime of habits is hard to break for both of them but they’re getting there. Gabe even has a job. Will he regret agreeing to it? Probably but it’s almost legal, so baby steps. Then a strange young woman claiming to be his long-lost daughter appears on his new doorstep, and she has some sketchy documentation to prove it. It’s not impossible, but Gabe wasn’t born yesterday, and Heidi Karne was his mother, after all. And another damn letter—this one from a stranger—shows up. The author claims to be a friend of Heidi’s and to have some of his late mother’s belongings. Just great. It's pretty clear that the past isn't done with him yet. It will be fine. Everything will be fine.