Kelson Books

This gripping, high-stakes debut thriller about the lengths mothers will go to protect their children is perfect for fans of Wanda M. Morris and Jess Lourey.

Boots Marez is a Latina single mother raising a headstrong and sly eighteen-year-old boy she adopted six years ago. She also runs a school that helps the undocumented people in her politically divided town in Northern California. When her son Jaral is jailed for the murder of one of her former students, her world is turned upside down.

Struggling to protect her son, Boots has to spotlight a community used to living in the shadows, putting her hard work over the years in doubt. Meanwhile, a vicious parents’ board wants to trash her ideals and oust her from the school she helped build. As she faces increasing danger to clear her son’s name, she must decide how far she is willing to go to bring her son home.

But nothing is as it seems--Jaral has been keeping secrets from her after all. And as she puts the missing pieces together, she will discover a deeper and darker web of lies that has been hiding in plain sight.

Maria Kelson wrote and published poetry for years as Maria Melendez, with two collections from University of Arizona Press recognized as finalists for the Pen Center USA Literary award and Colorado Book Award. Driven by an urge to write more for an audience and less for herself, she started working on the crime novel you have in your hands, which won Sisters in Crime’s Eleanor Taylor Bland award for Crime Fiction Writers of Color while a work in progress. An alumna of 5th grade outdoor education at Redwood Glen, she grew up in northern California on the Trixie side of the Belden/Drew divide and earned English degrees at Colorado State University and University of California, Davis. She has given readings and workshops at campuses and literary festivals around the country and was selected to serve as an American Voices arts envoy in Bogotá, Colombia. Her parents’ families originate in Mexico and England, and the odds that you’re her cousin are very high. Maria writes The Unrealities newsletter about crime fiction and speculative stories. Connect and sign up at mariakelson.com.