The Heart’s Cove Files, Book 1
The Woman They Blamed
Eleven years for a murder she didn’t commit. Now she wants one thing: the name of the man who did.
Mara Quinn walks out of prison with two hundred forty-seven dollars, a prepaid phone, and a letter from a small firm that doesn’t believe she killed her best friend, Josie Renfrew. She isn’t looking for an apology. She’s looking for a name.
Ex-FBI behavioral analyst Micah Reyes wants to help her find it. But he’s carrying a secret: his own framework helped convict her. He takes the case anyway and chooses not to tell her. Every day of silence becomes a lie he can’t take back.
Back in Heart’s Cove, the Oregon coast town that once decided she was guilty, Mara sets her terms and accepts the only place to sleep she’s offered. Micah stops reading her like a profile and starts treating her like a partner. Long nights over the file draw them closer than either can afford. She refuses sympathy. He offers none. Somehow that is what undoes them both.
But someone in town is watching their light burn late, and he wants to know what they have. Can Mara learn the truth about the night Josie died before Micah’s secret, or a killer, catches up with her?
The Woman They Blamed is book one of The Heart’s Cove Files, a small-town romantic suspense series.
- Published
- October 26, 2026
- Setting
- Heart’s Cove, a small Oregon coast town twenty minutes south of Astoria
- Inside
- wrongfully convicted heroine, hero with a guilty secret, slow burn, forced proximity, small-town secrets, partners in an investigation
- Format
- Kindle eBook, free to read with Kindle Unlimited
