Kill the Clock

Paris-born Frederique Bonnaire has escaped New York City for Santa Monica, California where she faces an unknown future but one she is certain will be an improvement over what she left behind: a recent divorce and dwindling jobs as a high-end model. The one person she knows in the sunny state is Joseph Buckley Lemoyne, now a successful private investigator. Freddy met her Cajun friend when, as a moonlighting Manhattan cop, Buck provided security at her fashion show gigs and they'd bonded over the fact that they were both former New Orleans residents. Freddy embraces the Left Coast lifestyle, becoming a devout Laker basketball fan, and just when she thinks the only problems marring her new beginning are romantic complications involving Buck, her favorite bartender and a certain Native american police detective plus a still struggling modeling career, she learns a dear girlfriend she'd known in New York has also migrated to Southern California. . .only to be the victim of an attempted murder. As she enlists Buck and a cast of diverse characters to solve the mystery of the shooting, Freddy discovers an even more frightening fact. . .the killer is also after her

Sunny Kreis Collins, unlike Freddy, was not born in Paris but is a passionate Francophile and lover of all things reminiscent of New Orleans. A member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, she resides in California, where she is at work on her next Frederique Bonnaire novel. Email her at desertscribe6@msn.com.