The Widow of Cinders

I was supposed to die in the fire on my wedding night. I didn't. I changed my name, moved to Tucson, and spent three years restoring other people's furniture. Then a man started standing at the edge of my parking lot at night. Tall. Black coat in the Sonoran heat. Never close enough to talk to. Emeric Vuković. Forty-seven. The man my husband's crew hired to find the bride who survived. For eleven weeks he watched me instead of finishing the job. He read the notebook I leave in my truck. He learned which nights I take out the trash. Then an old associate recognized me at the shop, and Emeric killed him in the loading bay and knocked on my door with the truth. We drove to the coast. I negotiated with a federal agent. In the spring, I testified in a Phoenix courthouse and he took immunity. The Widow of Cinders is a stalker age gap mafia novel with a widowed heroine, a killer with a code, and an ending in a new shop with the wrong name on the mailbox — deliberately.