Murder...at the HOA?

Jane McLaren is happy living and working in the sleepy resort village of Desert Pines, Oregon – or so she tells herself. Though new to town, she has a home with her feisty grandfather for as long as she wants it, a steady job as a barista, and most importantly, no questions asked.

Boredom may be a small price to pay for absolute privacy, but Jane quickly discovers that when nothing has meaning, you might start to care about anything. Even the HOA.

Her ho-hum life is upended when a series of nasty letters and emails go out to the townsfolk and rumors of theft and embezzlement run rampant in the small community. The low-level scandal escalates into something more sinister at an increasingly creepy town event led by the power-hungry – and possibly insane – president of the local HOA Board. While a thunder and lightning storm rages outside, the annual meeting of the homeowners association devolves from petty bickering into open murder.

As the bodies pile up, wildfires set by the lightning storm cut the residents of Desert Pines off from the rest of the world. In order to help her new friends and solve the mystery, Jane is forced to reveal a secret about her past that she would much rather have kept hidden.

Faced with her own poor decisions and saddled by the fear that someone she loves might be a cold-blooded killer, Jane’s numbness and ennui disappear, and she begins to feel herself coming to life again. But can she solve the mystery before it’s too late for her to correct her mistakes, or will the murderer strike again?