What Doesn't Kill You

Welcome to a world where failure fuels the quest for truth, and heartbreak becomes the path to justice. Join Katie Connell and Emily Bernal in this thrilling seven-book collection, penned by award-winning author Pamela Fagan Hutchins, where mysteries unravel in the face of relentless determination and unexpected love.

Every cowboy at the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo is hot for rising music star Maggie Killian. But Maggie is laser-focused on her songs, her next show, and her future. She’s not going to be any cowboy’s buckle bunny. Down-and-out bull-rider Hank Sibley needs big money fast, so he strikes a deal with the devil to lose in Cheyenne for cash. When Hank reneges to get Maggie to go out with him, the only thing standing between him and deadly payback is a pissed-off, buckle-wearing Maggie.

Katie Connell is a high-strung attorney whose sloppy drinking habits and stunted love life collide hilariously during a doomed celebrity case in Dallas. She flees Texas for the Caribbean and escapes professional humiliation, a broken heart, and a wicked Bloody Mary habit, but ends up trading one set of problems for another when she begins to investigate the suspicious deaths of her parents on the island of St. Marcos.

A family in danger. A missing love child. A deadly new strain of murder. These are the themes of the three books in the Michele Lopez Hanson Trilogy. It includes the three books: Going for Kona, Fighting for Anna, and Searching for Dime Box. Follow Michele as she solves one mystery after another, despite a personal tragedy and setbacks.

When a dead body swan-dives from a balcony into the pool at a wedding, gossip comes to a halt about disgraced paralegal and former rodeo queen Emily - whose husband left her for a woman who turns out to be a man. Enter Jack, a secretive attorney and sexy mix of cowboy and Indian. She refuses to work for him, until she learns about the disappearance of the six-year old daughter of his notorious client Sofia. Emily launches a desperate search for her.

Texas attorney and sloppy drinker Katie Connell’s career just melted down before her eyes. After very public failure during a doomed celebrity trial and a heart-wrenching breakup, she avoids rehab by retreating to the tropical island where her parents tragically died. But when she arrives, it becomes obvious that her parents’ supposed accident was cold and calculated. As Katie sorts through the clues, she gets help from an unexpected source: a spirited house named Annalise.

Katie Connell's new life in St. Marcos is cruising right along. She’s got a restaurateur boyfriend, a singing venture with her best friend, and a new streak of sobriety. Even better, she’s purchased a rainforest home that came complete with a centuries-old house ghost. With her legal career well behind her, she's hopeful her new chapter will lead her to happiness.

Katie Connell is happily married and living the island life on St. Marcos. Just when she thinks life is settling down with her dream man and their gorgeous children, they learn a stranger died at the front gate of their jumbie house. After the victim's well-connected employer hires Katie and Nick to investigate, they discover a horrifying secret about the place they call home.

When Michele Lopez Hanson quit her law practice to become an author, she was looking forward to spending more time at home with her triathlete husband and her teen kids. But when a tragic biking accident claims her husband’s life, she finds herself with nothing but free time and painful memories. Drowning in grief, she pledges to honor his memory by competing in the Ironman he’ll never finish. But as she follows along his old training routes, she discovers that if she pedals hard enough, she can sense him alongside her.

Dumped by her husband for a man, ex-rodeo queen Emily Bernal yearns for a fresh start. When a handsome local attorney named Jack offers her a gig, she's not sure if it's the right fit. But after a dead body takes a swan dive right in front of her and she learns a missing six-year-old girl is caught in the aftermath, Emily's heart sends her from barrel racing to paralegal work in a hurry. As she and Jack interrogate the young girl's tight-lipped mother, a string of strange coincidences don't seem to add up.

Emily Bernal may have traded the fast-paced rodeo world for paralegal work, but the change hasn’t made her life any simpler. Between romancing her sexy attorney boss Jack and fighting for custody of her foster child, she wonders if riding a bucking bronco would be easier. But when two runaway teens beg for her help after witnessing a truck-stop murder, the former rodeo queen springs into action.

Emily Bernal feels like she’s finally living her happily ever after. Weeks away from marrying her sexy boss and adopting the little girl who stole her heart, she thought nothing could break her stride. At least until a dead man faceplants into a novelty cake and Emily’s friend is charged with murder. As she follows the crumb trail of clues, Emily must infiltrate a cult and clash with her nemesis. But the closer she gets to the truth, the more her fiancé pushes her away. Emily wonders if the man of her dreams is holding back something far more sinister than three little words.

A musical career in the making. A murdered childhood friend. One chance to catch the killer. Ava dreams of building a better life for her daughter through her island pop songs. Her new temp job leads to a once-in-a-lifetime shot at a record deal, but before she can pack her bags for New York, she discovers a dead body outside her office building. Horrified, Ava recognizes the murdered sex worker as her childhood friend. The single mother finds herself torn between pursuing her life’s passion or justice for her murdered friend. 

struggles with her newfound solitude. When her unmarried retired neighbor Gidget asks her to document her career in the art world, she’s eager for the company…and the advice on coping with an empty nest. But their trek down memory lane turns into a missing person search when Gidget dies and leaves behind a will that tasks Michele with finding her long-lost love child. When she learns the murderous truth behind Gidget’s death and she's named the prime suspect, Michele realizes any one of the grieving artists and collectors could be the love child's father or her neighbor's killer.

After battling breast cancer, island pop singer and single mom Ava thought she could handle anything her concert tour threw her way. But when tragedy strikes her album launch party, she realizes she may have underestimated the price she’ll have to pay for fame. The cost skyrockets when someone attempts to murder her headlining act. Still shaken by the alarming attack, Ava has little time to process the traumatic event before she’s caught up in a scandal worthy of the tabloids. Someone in her staff is leaking secrets to the paparazzi.

Everyone wants a piece of Ava’s skyrocketing star power...including her serious boyfriend and her deadbeat baby daddy. But when she visits the future site of a controversial resort and stumbles upon a dead body, Ava thinks she’s finally found a worthy cause for her newfound celebrity. Determined to catch the killer and stop the construction of the eco-unfriendly tourist trap, she plans to put her sex symbol status to good use. 

After lonely months spent writing her true crime novel, Michele Lopez Hanson reconnects with her community by offering pro-bono legal counsel. When an open-and-closed drug case takes an unexpected turn, she’s determined to shake off the dust and hit the books. But after a mysterious sickness sends her infant grandson to the hospital, she worries she may have bitten off more than she can chew. Searching for the source of his sickness, she discovers strange parallels between her legal case and the baby’s suspected poisoning.