Showing results by author "L.J. Sellers" in All Categories

In geneticist Elizabeth Demauer, Jenna sees her best chance to conceive a child. But in Jenna’s unmistakable resemblance - and healthy body - Elizabeth sees much more: the sister she never knew existed, the perfect vessel for motherhood, and the chance to finally have the child she desperately craves.

Detective Wade Jackson is in for a shock when he's summoned to the police chief's office - his sergeant has been poisoned, and Jackson's been tapped to lead the investigation. But before the Eugene Violent Crimes unit has a chance to respond, two people are gunned down at a licensed marijuana nursery. Jackson and his colleague Detective Lara Evans are on the case - but there are more suspects than evidence, and the crime is baffling.

When bodies with unusual traits start showing up in the morgue, intern Taylor Lopez is alarmed enough to dig into the dead people's profiles. After discovering they were born at the same clinic two decades earlier, she investigates further and uncovers a shocking list. With the realization that more gender-fluid people are targeted for elimination, Taylor kicks her investigation into high gear. But Major Blackburn, the researcher who conducted the experiment, isn't about to let anything interfere with his plans.

When a victim with no ID is found murdered, Detective Jackson believes it’s another hate crime. He rounds up members of a local white nationalist group, but his task force doesn’t have enough evidence to hold them. Soon after, another woman dies of what looks like a possible suicide. Yet a witness claims the victim had argued with her estranged husband right before. The team has to split up to investigate both deaths, and the detectives are pushed to their limits.

When a woman is murdered with her own food product, Detective Jackson takes the case - even though his brother is hospitalized with a mystery illness and his heart is torn between two women. A Peeping Tom neighbor surfaces as an obvious suspect, but when a second woman with similar looks is strangled, the task force fears they’re dealing with a serial killer. 

When a frustrated ex-con takes a young family and their home hostage, the only officer he’ll speak with is Detective Wade Jackson. But Jackson already has his hands full running the Eugene Violent Crimes Unit and overseeing the investigation of a series of seemingly random assaults. While Jackson juggles the hostage negotiations with his chaotic single-parent home life, the assaults point toward a troubled company that recycles industrial oil.

A body wrapped in plastic turns up in the middle of the road — with no ID and no viable explanation. The pressure builds when Detective Jackson must also locate a missing woman that few people seem to know. Both victims lived on society’s edge, so witnesses and leads are scarce. Worried that the woman’s life is in peril, Jackson resorts to following her ex-boyfriend, but the effort backfires in a deadly way. 

In these two short thrillers, best-selling author L.J. Sellers explores how the dark side of human nature takes over in crucial, fearful moments and leads to irreversible, life-changing repercussions.

In her personal life, FBI agent Andra Bailey works hard to control her sociopathic tendencies. But on the job, her cold logic comes in handy. Now two world-renowned scientists have disappeared, and the bureau assigns Bailey to find them and hunt down the kidnapper. The agent soon suspects that a rare-metal shortage may be the link between the disappearances and that the motive is far more dangerous than she imagined.

Roxanne MacFarlane is the Extractor - a former CIA agent who specializes in rescuing people from dangerous situations. She lives on the edge and works outside the law, but desperate families know she's the only operative who can bring their missing loved ones home. Driven by guilt over the loss of her sister to a polygamous cult, she will stop at nothing to save her clients.

Each year, a down-and-out America looks to the Gauntlet games for sheer spectacle and - for one lucky state - a better chance at survival. In 2023, former-police-detective-turned-paramedic Lara Evans is poised to enter the punishing endurance competition, determined to bring glory and a major economic boost back home to Oregon. But treacherous tests of physical and mental prowess - and a pack of cutthroat rivals - are far from the greatest obstacles Lara faces. Saving a hit man’s victim has made her a target, and the murder of a fellow contestant has branded her a suspect.

Sula Moreno's job in public relations is to put a human face on the big corporate drug manufacturer she works for. But there's no humanity in the shocking plot she uncovers to hush up a lethal flaw in the company's newest product, Nexapra, an antidepressant prone to triggering suicide in users. And though marketing it could be tantamount to mass murder, the company's CEO won't hesitate to put profits before people

While skydiving with an adventure group, FBI Agent Jamie Dallas overhears plans to carry out criminal acts against a politician. Believing the group may have already committed murder, the bureau sends Dallas to infiltrate the activists. But to worm her way inside the tight-knit clan, Dallas makes dangerous compromises and starts to sympathize with their cause. She ends up so deep undercover, she can't make contact with the bureau.

Award-winning journalist and best-selling mystery/suspense author L.J. Sellers shares humorous personal essays and a host of blogs about her journey to become a successful full-time, indie novelist. The book also includes a long chapter with writing, editing, and promotion advice, as well as detailed information about her writing process.The final chapter highlights features she wrote about amazing women in her hometown of Eugene, Oregon.

Who slaughtered Jared and Carla Walker and their young son in their own home? Only their teenage daughter, the sole survivor, knows the truth. But it’s buried in her traumatized mind - leaving Detective Wade Jackson to weigh a tangle of inconclusive evidence and size up a gallery of suspects. A gang of carjackers may have graduated to home invasion and homicide, but Jackson’s not ruling out a bitter brother-in-law convinced the Walkers ripped him off big-time, a young heroin addict in forbidden love with the family’s daughter, or the former employer Jared Walker had on the blackmail hook.

A pipe bomb explodes at a birth control clinic, then a young client turns up dead in a dumpster. Kera, the clinic nurse, discovers that the girl’s Bible group is sharing more than the Good News. Confidentiality keeps her from telling the police, so she digs for the truth on her own—becoming the bomber’s new target. Meanwhile, Detective Jackson races to find the killer, fearing that his own daughter could be next.

On a chilly Oregon morning, a policeman is found slain near the homeless camp where he'd been passing out blankets the night before. When Detective Jackson is called to the scene, witnesses point to a pair of mentally ill street twins as the likely perpetrators.

Agent Jamie Dallas loves undercover assignments that get her out of the Phoenix Bureau. But when a woman and her baby disappear from an isolated community of preppers in Northern California, she knows the risk of infiltrating the armed group is dangerously high. Once inside the compound, she discovers that the brothers who founded Destiny are scheming something far more devious than kidnapping or murder.

When a young mother is found murdered in a derelict Eugene neighborhood - and her terrified young son is discovered hiding beneath the floorboards - Detective Jackson reluctantly takes the case. His own life is already in chaos, with his runaway teenage daughter, Katie, still gone and his girlfriend, Kera, facing her own family crisis. Matters get more complicated when the orphaned boy bonds with Jackson, triggering unexpected emotions and compromising his ability to investigate.

What does a man drugged and slashed to death by an unknown assailant have to do with a woman felled by a fatal heart attack after learning her bank account had been plundered? The cases seem as different as their scenarios - late night in a tavern parking lot and early the next morning inside a bank. But a troubling theory soon unites them: Was the first crime's murder victim the second crime's mastermind?