Click on the “READ” button at the top of this page to take you to NOVELS – Coming Soon!

Something Borrowed by Lisa Landry – A Novel

When Detective Sarah Hernandez fled Texas eight years ago, she left behind more than geography – she abandoned a self-forged in minutes of violence that taught her how civilization is merely a thin veneer. Among Boston’s rain-slicked streets and weathered triple-deckers, she constructed a new identity where badge and procedure could contain what she’d learned about humanity’s capacity for brutality. SOMETHING BORROWED (90,000 words) is an upmarket psychological suspense that explores what happens when that carefully assembled life shatters, forcing a woman to confront both the ghosts of her past and an unexpected future carrying her murdered fiancé’s child.

The novel opens on what should be an ordinary morning patrol. Sarah carries two secrets: her unspoken pregnancy and the weight of her past. But fate carries a third – in fourteen hours, her fiancé Mark will lie dead on rain-soaked pavement, victim of what appears to be a random traffic stop gone wrong. A single fiber left behind in the shooter’s abandoned sedan unravels a tapestry of calculated violence, leading Sarah to Marcus Walsh, a wedding planner whose charming exterior masks a predator who profits from the “accidental” deaths of brides.

As Sarah investigates, she forms an unlikely alliance with Finn O’Malley, a rookie detective whose hesitant exterior conceals his own familial wounds. Their partnership, forged in the shadow of Mark’s absence, evolves into something neither expected – a chance for mutual redemption. Meanwhile, two women emerge whose lives intersect with Marcus’s web of destruction: Kate, his adopted daughter, who recognizes in him the same calculated violence that claimed her mother; and Eleanor, Sarah’s childhood friend from Texas, whose near-escape from Marcus’s machinations forces Sarah to bridge the chasm between her past and present selves.

The investigation becomes a psychological crucible, testing not just Sarah’s detective skills but her understanding of justice, vengeance, and the price of survival. When Marcus attempts to silence her – leaving her bound and fighting for survival in Boston Harbor’s frigid waters – Sarah must confront how the line between hunter and hunted can blur in the space of a heartbeat. Her pregnancy, once a private joy, becomes both vulnerability and strength as she navigates this moral labyrinth where justice and vengeance share the same dark corners of the human psyche.

The final confrontation awakens something Sarah thought she’d left behind in Texas – the razor-sharp instincts forged during those minutes that changed everything, when she learned exactly how long it takes for civilization to crack and reveal the predator beneath. As gunfire erupts in the rain-slicked darkness, her response transcends police training, tapping into that hypervigilant state she’s spent years trying to outrun.

SOMETHING BORROWED delves into the psychological complexities of law enforcement, particularly for those who carry unmarked scars beneath their badges. Through Sarah’s journey, the novel explores how the methodical pursuit of justice can become a mirror reflecting our own capacity for violence. The ambiguous nature of her final triumph – the visceral satisfaction of putting down a threat, the way her body remembers its dance with death in Texas – leaves readers questioning whether Sarah has truly processed her trauma or simply transformed it into a weapon she can justify. As she moves forward, both mother and officer, the novel asks whether the instincts honed by survival might make her a more effective guardian of justice, or whether they’ve simply taught her to hunt with a badge instead of run – and at what cost to her soul.

Something Borrowed

Chapter 1, Scene 1: Last Watch

The clock was ticking for Detective Sarah Hernandez, a countdown to tragedy that only fate was aware of and had already written in blood. She had fourteen hours left with her fiancé and a secret buried deeper than any grave.

The Boston morning fog pressed against their apartment windows like a shroud, turning her partner’s silhouette into a ghost as he moved through their pre-shift routine, humming that damn Irish lullaby she’d never hear again. She ran her fingers over her badge, then her engagement ring. Two symbols of commitment, now joined by a third, nestled beneath her hand, a secret growing more precious with each passing hour.

If she had known it was their final morning, would she have committed more to memory?

The morning light dissected their kitchen into sharp geometries of shadow and revelation, each familiar surface now a palimpsest of memory and meaning. Sarah tracked Mark’s movements with a detective’s practiced observation and a lover’s intimate knowledge, cataloging details her mind insisted on preserving: the precise angle of his jaw when he smiled, the unconscious grace of his hands as they performed their morning ritual of coffee and keys, the way his presence filled their shared space with a sense of permanence she should have known better than to trust. Her body held its own secret vigil, the microscopic drama of cellular division beneath her heart writing a future neither of them could yet imagine. The badge at her hip carried a different weight now, its metal cool against her skin – no longer just a symbol of authority but a reminder of how quickly everything could change, how the thin blue line between order and chaos could blur in the space of a heartbeat.

She adjusted her uniform collar, the familiar ritual now charged with new meaning as she studied her reflection. The hallway mirror held secrets her trained detective’s eye couldn’t help but search for – some sign of the changes happening beneath her skin, some visible marker of how fundamentally different everything had become. Nothing showed yet, but her body felt like a crime scene, holding evidence only she could read.

Mark’s reflection appeared behind her now, a study in contradictions: the casual intimacy of his towel-clad form versus the gravitas of his Academy ring. The way his shoulder brushed hers spoke volumes about their shared history – partners in every sense, their bodies long ago learning the choreography of shared spaces. His smile, caught in the mirror’s truth, carried that particular shade of contentment that came from believing in permanence, in futures yet to be written.

“Looking sharp, future Mrs. O’Connell,” he called out, the nickname landing differently now, heavy with implications she alone understood. The car keys arced between them, their private ritual of shared responsibility. His Academy ring glinted on its chain, a talisman of their shared calling that matched her engagement ring – symbols of dedication that went deeper than metal and stone. “Ready to keep Boston safe for another day?”

The question hung in the moisture-laden air, innocent of its own weight.

Their patrol car waited in the gray dawn like a silent guardian, its windows latticed with frost patterns that reminded Sarah of crime scene photos – delicate, temporary evidence of nature’s indifference to human plans. Her fingers found the familiar tear in the steering wheel’s leather, a small imperfection that had become a touchstone over countless shifts. The rain transformed Boston’s streets into a monochrome canvas of shifting shadows and reflected light, while they settled into their chosen position with the precision of experienced hunters: the straight stretch of road where wealth liked to announce itself in German engineering and Italian horsepower, the old maples providing cover like silent conspirators, strategic streetlights promising evidence of infractions yet to come.

To Sarah’s mind, still processing the seismic shift of impending motherhood, it should have felt different – this last normal morning. But routine wrapped around them like a well-worn blanket: traffic stops, paperwork, the playful bickering over lunch duties that had become their love language. The universe, in its cosmic indifference, offered no warning signs, no premonitions of how this ordinary day would fracture into before and after. Sarah couldn’t know it would be their last morning together, that time was already measuring itself in heartbeats rather than hours.

Escape into Adventure!

Echoes in the Ravine

Echoes in the Ravine! Release date coming soon. Pre-order now!

---

Escape into Adventure!

Whispers on the wind. Pre-Order now!

Dive into captivating Old Frontier tales today!

Whispers on the Wind – Release Date to be announced soon.

Set against the rugged backdrop of the Wyoming Territory in 1873, “Whispers on the Wind” tells the compelling story of Eva McLaughlin, a spirited young woman yearning for freedom beyond the walls of Fort Laramie. Haunted by the loss of her uncles in the Civil War and constrained by societal expectations, Eva’s escape into the untamed wilderness marks the beginning of an extraordinary journey. After surviving a fierce storm and a life-threatening bear attack, she crosses paths with Joseph Sheldon, a man seeking redemption from his turbulent past. As tensions flare between settlers, Native American tribes, and lingering shadows of the Civil War, Eva and Sheldon navigate a world of hidden dangers, shifting alliances, and buried secrets. Together, they must confront their own prejudices and fears to uncover the truths whispered on the wind, leading them towards forgiveness, resilience, and the forging of new destinies.