Sean McKenna is a thief, and he’s good at it. It hasn’t made him rich, but he gets by. More importantly, it keeps him from falling into the dead-end employment trap that’s ensnared so many others in Laytons Grove, the small Illinois town where he’s spent his life.

Reagan McKenna stays clear of her brother’s business, but not his life. She would like him to rejoin the family he left many years ago, mostly to save their mother from a broken heart.

Sean is content with the life he’s forged though. He plans his jobs in great detail, always weighing the risk against the reward. However, his partners, Jack and Travis, are less calculating, and their recklessness attracts the attention of Detective Mary Morelli.

As Mary closes in on Sean and his friends, Jack proposes a job that Sean finds too risky and under planned, but Jack moves forward anyway, dragging Sean into the hasty scheme. The disastrous result shatters the peacefulness of the small town, places lives in danger, and inflicts irreparable damage to generations of families.

Coming Spring 2026

Someone is killing drug dealers and some in the Midwest town of Stonebridge speculate that a vigilante is behind the violence. Others believe it’s merely fallout from ongoing gang wars.

Reporter Jakob Larsen isn’t content with either opinion. When he starts digging for answers, he discovers massive corruption within the police department and a link to a powerful cartel, information that places him and those closest to him in grave danger.

Follow-up on the tension-packed action from the award-winning first book in the Jakob Larsen Mysteries series with We Kill Our Own.

 

Get We Kill Our Own now!

Available now in paperback and on all popular ebook platforms.

Someone murdered sixteen-year-old Grace Sutherland and dumped her body along the riverbank.

The news shocks most in the Midwest town of Stonebridge, but for reporter Jakob Larsen, her death dredges up particularly bad memories. Two years ago, his father was murdered, and police have yet to make an arrest.

Knowing the pain the girl’s family feels, Jakob is determined to find answers for them. Answers his family still doesn’t have. But as Jakob hunts for the truth, he uncovers details that could rip the Sutherland family apart.

The Gentle Slope is the winner of the Pinnacle Book Achievement Award for Best Suspense Fiction.

Get The Gentle Slope now!

Available now in paperback and on all popular ebook platforms.

From award-winning crime writer R.M. Lowery, Tough Messes: Eleven Stories of Crime and Desperation features a range of characters from mafia soldiers to desperate men forced into impossible situations.

Stories include “Moving Day,” “Flush,” “I Like You, You Seem Nice,” “Luxury Goods,” and many others.

This collection of eleven stories, available for the first time in a single volume, is a welcome addition to the library of anyone who enjoys crime, noir, and mystery fiction.

Get Tough Messes now!

Available now in paperback and on all popular ebook platforms.

R.M. Lowery

R.M. Lowery is the award-winning author of the Jakob Larsen MysteriesThe Gentle Slope, We Kill Our Own, and Time Fades Away, as well as Tough Messes: Eleven Stories of Crime and Desperation. His short fiction has also appeared in Black Cat Mystery Magazine, Workers Write, The First Line, and others. Lowery lives in Colorado with his beautiful wife and their clowder (of cats).

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Karin Slaughter