The Reckoning

By

Kelli Stanley
First in an explosive new thriller series set in 1985 & introducing Renata Drake—on the run from the execution-style murder of her sister’s killer, who finds herself lost in the “Emerald Triangle”.
The Reckoning

By

Kelli Stanley

First in an explosive new thriller series set in 1985 & introducing Renata Drake—on the run from the execution-style murder of her sister’s killer, who finds herself lost in the "Emerald Triangle".

California, Southern Humboldt County, 1985. Renata Drake steps off a Greyhound bus and into small-town Garberville, hoping to disappear. She checks the papers. She’s not headline news. Not yet.

But she’s made a mistake. The FBI have the cannabis-producing “Emerald Triangle” town— and its corrupt residents—in their sights. Even worse, a teenage girl is missing, and when she turns up dead, the third in three years, it’s clear a serial killer is living among them.

Renata knows about murdered girls and the burning desire for justice—and for revenge. Her younger sister Josie is gone, and now, so is the man who killed her. Renata didn’t stay in Washington, D.C. to be arrested for executing a murderer, and she shouldn’t stay here either. But Renata decides to investigate, and what she uncovers will trigger a final reckoning: for herself, for a killer, and for all of Southern Humboldt.

This powerful, page-turning thriller explores the human cost of corruption and the psychological toll that violence takes on women.

About the Author

Kelli is the creator of the Miranda Corbie series (CITY OF DRAGONS, CITY OF SECRETS, CITY OF GHOSTS, CITY OF SHARKS), crime fiction novels set in 1940 San Francisco and featuring "one of crime's most arresting heroines" (Library Journal) as well as another series set in Roman Britain. Bouchercon's 2024 Historical Mystery Guest of Honor, her awards include the Macavity, Anthony and the Bruce Alexander and she is a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist. She was awarded a Certificate of Merit from the City and County of San Francisco for her contributions to literature. Her next book, THE RECKONING, is a thriller set in the cannabis-growing mountains of Humboldt County in 1985. (www.kellistanley.com)

READ more

The Silent House of Sleep

A pathologist, haunted by his service during WWI, investigates two murders in post-war London in this Bloody Scotland Debut Prize winner.

The Library After Dark

A bookseller must escape the infamously haunted library that holds her darkest secrets, but with a murderer in her tour group, escaping alive is not as simple as it seems.

51%

In a future where corporations own everything—including people—one murder could ignite a revolution.

Explore Further

ADVENTURE THRILLERS

ESPIONAGE THRILLERS

MILITARY THRILLERS

MYSTERIES

POLITICAL THRILLERS