Don’t worry – not in your neighborhood. But my new thriller is available on Amazon or at your local bookstore!

The Barbie Killer was inspired by true events – and the chilling intersection between true crime and personal experience. In the 1970s, 80s, 90s and beyond, serial killer Dennis Rader, known as “BTK” for Bind, Torture, Kill, terrorized the community of Wichita, Kansas. My family and I lived there from 1995 – 2000, a time when the killer was “inactive,” but no one ever breathed a word to us about him.

Not a neighbor, not a friend, and not a business colleague of my husband – who worked for a large company headquartered in Wichita then. Many people we met had grown up there, so they knew about BTK, but they kept mum about him. Back then, the Internet was in its infancy and Google didn’t exist yet, so before and during our time in Wichita we had no idea he was on the loose and perhaps living in that small town where everyone seemed to know everyone else – or so they thought.

Years later, after we moved back to Atlanta, we learned the town’s dark secret when Rader was captured and sent to prison. Then one day, I was asked to write a short story for crime stories anthology DOWN TO THE RIVER, and I chose to set it in Wichita and make it about a family new to town who are shocked to learn about a serial murderer in their midst.

Then, I decided to turn it into a novel.

And voilà! Yesterday, March 31, 2026, my thriller THE BARBIE KILLER was published by Red Adept Publishing. My book launch at local independent bookstore Story & Song Bookstore and Bistro was a wild success. Stacks of copies sold out to a full house! My friend, author Linda R. Sexton, interviewed me about the book, and I answered great questions that members of the audience posed. I’m told the bookstore is ordering more copies tout de suite – immediately – and I’m going to love seeing them on the shelf there, as long as they last!

Order yours or pick it up there soon – or order it at your own local bookstore. If you love a taut, tense thriller, here’s a quote from an advance reviewer that made my day: “Holy smokes, I love a quick read. I love a good thriller and this one was a perfect example of how a story doesn’t need to be 500 pages to be good. Multiple points of view and was fun to read.”

If you also enjoy it, post your own review so others will know about it. Merci!