Before the ghosts. Before the ranch. Before everything changed. Claire Caldwell has it all figured out. A corner office, a "devoted" fiancé, and a five-year plan that definitely doesn't include inheriting a ranch in the middle of the Arizona desert. Then her boss calls her "redundant." Her fiancé calls her "Harmony." And a desperate teenager calls from Perdido Springs, demanding $347.82 for horse feed. In three devastating weeks, Claire watches her carefully constructed life collapse. The job she gave twelve years to? Gone. The man she planned to marry? Running off with his yoga instructor and her "spiritual energy." The letters from Arizona she's been ignoring? Turns out they're not a scam. Now Claire owns forty acres, four horses, a herd of stubborn goats, and more questions than answers. Why did her great-aunt leave everything to a niece she met once? Why does Claire keep seeing people who aren't there? And why does she dream of a copper-colored fox with preternatural eyes? She's about to find out that losing everything was just the beginning. Last Call in Chicago is a prequel novella to Death Rides the Desert, the first book in The Haunted Ranch Mysteries series. Discover how Claire Caldwell went from corporate burnout to ghost whisperer... one terrible week at a time.

Claire Caldwell has finally found her footing. Six months after solving her first murder, she's turned Whispering Saguaro Ranch into a thriving animal sanctuary and embraced her ability to see the dead. But the desert has more secrets to reveal. When volunteers preparing for the Cactus Bloom Festival unearth human bones that have been hidden for thirty-five years, the whole town starts whispering about old scandals and vanished souls. Then one of the most powerful man in Perdido Springs turns up dead in his office, and everyone Claire knows had a reason to want him gone. The man who foreclosed on half the town... dead. The festival meant to save local businesses... in chaos. The ghosts in Claire's kitchen... warning her that death isn't finished yet. As Claire digs into both the old bones and the fresh corpse, she discovers the two deaths are connected by threads of family, loss, and long-buried grievances that someone would kill to keep hidden. With her fox, Rusty, bringing ominous warnings, the ghost of a long-dead librarian helping her research, and her relationship with Sam strained by family obligations, Claire must navigate a town full of desperate people harboring deadly secrets. In Perdido Springs, old wounds never heal... and some debts can only be paid in blood. Welcome back to the desert, where the past never stays buried.

A wine tasting. A viral treasure hunt. A body at the base of Dead Rock. Claire Caldwell thought she’d seen every kind of weird the desert could throw at her. Ghosts in her kitchen, omens from a spirit fox, and the occasional town scandal that required a very large cup of coffee. What she did not expect was a swarm of influencers descending on Perdido Springs for a luxury “Desert Vines Weekend,” complete with ring lights, sponsored smiles, and a limited edition bottle of Red Rock Reserve. The big gimmick is supposed to be harmless fun. Collect the special labels, piece together the artwork, and you get a treasure map to a legendary stash hidden near Dead Rock. Content gold. Tourist bait. Everyone wants in. Then the weekend’s headliner turns up dead at sunrise, the sheriff calls it a tragic accident, and the one bottle that completes the map disappears. Claire would love to let law enforcement handle it, but Buster is... Buster. Rosa’s ghost has opinions, Rusty is tracking something no living person can smell, and the closer Claire gets to the truth, the clearer it becomes that the “treasure” isn’t just old wine and a cute story. Someone in town has been protecting what Dead Rock is hiding for a long time, and they’ll do anything to keep it buried. Now Claire has to sift through secrets, suspects, and a trail of clues disguised as a party favor, before the killer strikes again… and the next toast becomes a death sentence.

Join Claire, Rusty, Sam, and the rest of the Perdido Springs crew on another rollicking cozy mystery adventure! Full blurb coming soon.