Cursed

Most people think the Spanish legend of la Llorona, a woman who killed her children to be with the man she loved, is just a story.  High school teacherJohanna Rios knows the truth.  She has lived with the curse since childhood. As the descendant of la Llorna’s only surviving child, child, Joanna’s mother fell victim to the curse and drown as she tried to kill Johanna and her sister Carmen. When one of Johanna’s former students, dressed like the crying woman herself in a white peasant dress, turns up dead in the San Julio River, Johanna’s world turns upside down.

The curse is back.

Single father and High School Principal Ray Vargas is filled with guilt.  [He could have prevented the death of his daughter’s friend, a former student.  When Johanna Rios, one of his teachers who seems to be connected to the legend of la Llorona, thinks three more people will die, each one representing a different version of the crying woman’s story, he will do whatever it takes to stop the killings from happening.

But with danger closing in and his own daughter at risk, Ray must join forces with Johanna to confront the legend, the curse, and the man behind the killings.

Read an excerpt

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The Chain Tree

After a horrible night that haunts her still, Delaney West ran away from her home in San Julio, Texas, and out of Vic Vargas’s life. Now, plagued by sleepwalking and terrible dreams, she is back, working at the local vet clinic, and trying to make some sense of her screwed up life.  But animals have started dying, their bodies drained of blood, and the marks on their carcasses have churned up the old legends of the chupacabra.  When Delaney awakens far from home and with blood on her hands, she fears she’s turned into the monster she’s been running from all these years.

Vic Vargas sunk his life savings into buying Tierra del Oro, the land that would keep him rooted to the town he loves.  He’s never forgiven Delaney West for walking out on him the night before they were to be married and he’s consoled himself the only way he knew how–with booze and women.  Just when things are looking up, the son he fathered just after Delaney left him is suddenly on his doorstep, Delaney’s back in town, and ranch animals are turning up dead.

When the town curandera takes an interest in Delaney and ultimately predicts a final–human–sacrifice, Vic and Delaney are forced to confront the past.  But will they be too late?

Melissa Bourbon’s PLEATING FOR MERCY, in which a woman opens a custom dressmaking boutique in a small Texas town and solves a murder with the help of her great-grandmother, the shop’s resident ghost, in a three-book deal, to Kerry Donovan at NAL by Holly Root at Waxman Literary Agency (World).

A Fun, new book trailer for Pleating for Mercy, A Dressmaker’s Mystery!