Recently retired sexagenarian sisters Avery and Claire trade their legal assistant jobs in Dallas for a peaceful life in Rancho Exotica, a quirky, high-fenced community nestled in the East Texas Piney Woods. Once a hunting ranch, the now-gated development is home to free-roaming exotic animals, including axis, fallow, and Pere David deer, and even zebras, who mingle alongside colorful locals with secrets of their own.
But paradise has a body count.
After a disastrous thunderstorm, the sisters discover the body of a woman beneath an uprooted tree. A mysterious semicircular wound reminiscent of a horse’s hoof… or a zebra’s… cracks her forehead wide open along with Rancho Exotica’s peaceful façade.
Unwilling to leave justice to the small-town police department, the sisters form a sleuthing “Posse” with Claire’s rekindled high school sweetheart, Tom, and Jay Vidocq, Rancho Exotica’s Head of Security and scrupulous ex-cop with a complicated marital status and an eye for Avery.
Armed with decades of true crime TV knowledge and zero formal training, Avery and Claire dive headfirst into solving murders that rattle their eccentric community, often beating the police to the punch and irritating a certain Detective Castellan in the process.
Follow the sisters as they romp through Rancho Exotica, invade a Dallas premier ladies’ club including exotic male dancers, and end with a heart-stopping car chase to DFW airport during rush hour traffic.

The second installment in the Rancho Exotica Mysteries—a cozy, cutting-edge mystery series with bite, wit, and just the right amount of zebra.

“Murder runs wild in a Texas retirement community where the zebras aren’t the only ones with stripes.”