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Detective Inspector Carol Ashton is back physically recovered from a gunshot wound, but emotionally shaken. She’s feeling the pressure of being out as a lesbian and constantly putting her life on the line. Can she do it again?
For most people, to know Milton Ryce is to loathe him. Now in his mid-forties, the practical joker has never outgrown the adolescent behavior that amused him so much as a teenager. Embarrassing others has been his favorite past time, and he delights in coming up with elaborate schemes for setting up his “friends” as fall guys. Extremely generous with his money, Milton has bought influence in high places and a circle of well-connected friends and business acquaintances. When he plunges to his death while sky diving, no one seems particularly surprised to find that he was murdered. Detective Inspector Carol Ashton finds a long list of possible murderers—a list that includes family members who are positively jostling for position to be at the top of the list. Then an elaborate practical joke is played out at Milton’s funeral by his son, Ted, and more evidence begins piling up against him. Carol must act quickly to find out if Ted is indeed his father’s killer—or if he is simply being set up as yet another ‘fall guy’…
Reproductive specialist Dr. Brin Halstead has made quite a name for himself. To admirers the charismatic doctor is a visionary, his Halstead Clinic at the cutting edge of genetic research, but a breaking scandal has begun to paint a very different picture of a dangerous fanatic playing with his patients’ lives—and the laws of nature.When Halstead’s body is discovered, brutally bludgconed and burnt beyond recognition, Detective Inspector Carol Ashton must follow the bloody trail down a slippery slope of greed, corruption, and murder.
Two celebrated writers combine to offer the electrifying conclusion to a legendary mystery series… Detective Inspector Carol Ashton’s promotion to Chief Inspector has immediately ensnared her in two assignments that hold no warning they will forever change her life. She’s inherited the pressurized case of the high-profile death of media star and wealthy philanthropist Greta Denby, who had been undergoing a controversial experimental treatment for her cancer. Carol is now also taking on the case of the investigating officer Inspector Ian Rooke, who has himself just died under baffling circumstances—a demise made more mysterious by the inexplicable shoddiness of his investigation into Greta’s death. In this final chapter, Carol must confront an increasingly dire future and the most formidable challenge of all—her fundamental belief in her career, and in herself. Seventeenth in the Carol Ashton Series.
After a tumultuous investigation that ended with a surprising and welcome new relationship, Detective Inspector Carol Ashton seems settled. Though she is in the closet to protect her career, life with Sybil is good—until the call that pulls Carol back to the woman who left her three years ago by returning to her husband. But now Christine’s husband is dead and she’s desperate for Carol’s help. Though not assigned to the case, Carol agrees. Quickly drawn into Christine’s world of high spending and low values, she finds herself at a personal and professional crossroads—and any choice may be her last. Originally published in 1989 by The Naiad Press.
Detective Inspector Carol Ashton is unaware that her investigation of execution-style murders and the bombing of a small-town police station has put her life in grave danger. The case leads her to the fringes of a mysterious underground group whose members are waging an undeclared war against anyone who does not share their extremist views.
The vast, forbidding Australian Outback… the grandeur of Ayers Rock… legendary Alice Springs… the Great Barrier Reef… the primal beauty of Cape Tribulation… Two women, from different continents, with different values, collide with spectacular results… UNDER THE SOUTHERN CROSS. American Lee Paynter has built her Small travel agency into an international tour company. Brash, confident, openly lesbian, her great love is her business. Women? They’re to enjoy and let go. Alexandra Findlay is pursuing a career in Australian tourism with quiet focus and determination, convinced that her career is the best she can hope for in her arid, closeted emotional existence. Now Alex has been assigned to accompany Lee on the American woman’s visit Down Under, to win Lee’s company over to Australian tourism. Suddenly Alex’s quiet life explodes… And Lee is challenged by a woman unlike any she has ever known.
A family business turns deadly… Bryce Darcy, partner is a highly successful family business, has been brutally murdered. Charlotte Darcy, sister to the victim, has confessed. Open and shut case, Detective Inspector Carol Ashton is informed. Not so, argues Carol’s aunt, friend to the Darcy family. She contends that Charlotte is mentally incompetent. Carol reopens the investigation. Bus she is in personal crisis, close to burnout. Sick of the patriarchal framework of police work, sick of hiding her real lesbian self for the sake of her career. Carol’s lover is not much help—Sybil has found her own direction in a dynamic women’s group. And the loyal Detective Sergeant Mark Bourke is distracted by his interest in the career of a promising female constable new to homicide. Amid her own predicament, Carol finds herself embroiled in a family at war. She discovers that the dead man was a member of a support group for married gay men. And that the Darcy family, blessed with fame and fortune, seethes with secrets: ambiguous parentage, a disgraceful family swindle, fraud, infidelity, attempted drug poisoning. And among the warring Darcys is a pitiless murderer.
On a hot summer day at Bellwhether High School in Sydney, Australia, teacher Bill Pagett lies murdered, the hole in his head accomplished with neat efficiency by a Black & Decker drill. Detective Inspector Carol Ashton investigates, bringing with her a formidable reputation for competence. She soon uncovers tangled relationships and motives for murder among the six teaching staff, along with a maze of malicious anonymous letters and threatening phone calls. And then there is yet another corpse. Carol’s investigation is further complicated by the flashfire attraction between herself and prime suspect Sybil Quade. Carol fights her desire, knowing its potential to compromise her investigation. Nor does Sybil welcome an ” unnatural” obsession with the alluring woman who is inexorably gathering the evidence to convict her of multiple murder. First in the Carol Ashton Series. Originally published by Naiad Press 1988.
When a murderer tees off at the world’s most prestigious women’s golf tournament, Australian top cop Carol Ashton becomes an unwilling player in a much deadlier game. Loaded with brains, style, and megabucks, Australian fashion magnate Gussie Whitlew is used to getting everything she wants. And what she wants is the finest food, the fastest cars, and the most fabulous women. This time her bait is Whitlew Challenge, an exclusive golf tournament carefully designed to lure the world’s top female athletes to her private clubhouse. With a lot more at stake than the $1.5 million purse, tension soon flares among players, fans, and just about everyone else. Before long, so much is going on off the course that even abrasive sports reporter Mandi Fiedler has a hard time keeping her eye on the ball…until the fairway becomes a killing field and someone sets out to even the score.