A Breath Of Hot Air

MURDER IN PARADISE - a short story depicted at Pensacola Beach. Sugar-white sands, emerald waves, sizzling hot temps served up with delicious fresh seafood – the perfect vacation spot.

Except FBI profiler Maggie O'Dell isn't on vacation. Her boss has sent her into the path of Hurricane Isaac to investigate a discarded fishing cooler that the Coast Guard pulled out of the Gulf of Mexico; a cooler filled with carefully wrapped body parts (DAMAGED, Doubleday). This short story, A BREATH OF HOT AIR, takes place in the middle of that investigation.

Maggie O'Dell is awakened in her hotel room on Pensacola Beach by a frantic desk clerk. Housekeeping has made a gruesome discovery – a dead guest. Maggie teams up with Denver homicide detective, Glen Karst to determine if a murderer is on the loose.

But Karst isn't in Pensacola on vacation either. He's on the track of a killer who escaped Colorado years ago. And it appears Karst may have found him.

Alex Kava and Patricia A. Bremmer throw their sleuths together for the first time, searching for evidence before a Category 5 hurricane roars ashore.

BONUS SECTION includes: an excerpt from Bremmer's CLINICAL DEATH, an excerpt from Kava's DAMAGED, character profiles of O'Dell and Karst, conversations with both authors, research trivia, and Kava's essay on "Creating Maggie O'Dell." Also included is an exclusive look at the "lost first chapter" to Kava's DAMAGED.