Kat Stone Books
As a private investigator, Kathleen Stone relies on her ability to blend into the background. Aided by her street-smart drag queen friend and the best wigmaker in New York City, she feels confident that her camouflage is up to snuff. But when a cheating spouse she’s been trailing ends up dead under suspicious circumstances, she fears that someone she angered in her past job—busting gangs and drug dealers as an undercover cop—has seen through her disguises. Now she must work with her former colleagues in the NYPD to solve the case before she’s the next victim.
It begins with a bang: Kathleen Stone is watching her friend Dolly and his fellow drag queens from The Pink Parrot perform at the Halloween Parade when their float explodes. Suspecting foul play, The Pink Parrot’s owner, Big Mamma, hires Kat to find the culprit.Meanwhile, Kat has not given up on her quest to bring gangster Salvatore Magrelli to justice and once more dons a disguise to infiltrate The Skyview, an exclusive club run by his wife, Eva. When she watches the club’s poker dealer drop dead during a high-stakes game, she decides to look into his death as well. Upon discovering that he was also gay, she suspects that this murder could be a hate crime connected to the parade explosion.However, as Kat digs deeper, she realizes that the truth is much more complicated and the real villains are much more difficult to spot.
An ex-NYPD investigator finds a body she recognizes under the George Washington Bridge in this “vividly told” crime thriller “studded with wry wit” ( Publishers Weekly ). Kat Stone knows she’s living on borrowed time, waiting for her violent past to catch up with her. Still, she doesn’t expect men to start falling from the sky. On a desolate morning in Fort Washington Park, Kat discovers the body of her apartment building’s maintenance man. The NYPD is quick to dismiss his death as suicide, another lost soul leaping from the bridge overhead. But Kat is less than convinced, especially when she learns about his dangerous side hustle. Forced to go undercover with a deep-sea fishing company, she’s determined to crack the case. But will she find the killer before her past drags her under? This riveting novel of suspense features “a motley cast of colorful characters—including a hallucination-inducing jellyfish. . . . Substance, entertainment, and chills-a-plenty” ( The Seattle Review of Books ). “Fascinating and fully developed characters.” ― Publishers Weekly Praise for the Kat Stone series “Aficionados of humorous mysteries like the Stephanie Plum series and the Lucky O’Toole series by Deborah Coonts will want to add this to their reading lists.” — Booklist on The Red Chameleon Originally published under the title The Blue Kingfisher
What happens when a master of disguise tries to be herself for once? If you’re private investigator Kat Stone, trouble seems to find you with or without your favorite wig. Kat knows she’s living on borrowed time, waiting for her violent past to catch up with her. Still, she doesn’t expect men to start falling from the sky. On a desolate morning in Fort Washington Park, Kat discovers the body of her building’s French expat maintenance man atop the Jeffrey’s Hook Lighthouse. The NYPD is quick to dismiss his death as suicide, another lost soul leaping from the bridge overhead. Kat is less than convinced, especially when she learns about his dangerous side hustle, finding jobs for immigrant members of their community. Her investigation turns up unexpected connections to Manhattan’s tony art world, not to mention a host of dark superstitions. When she goes undercover with a deep-sea fishing company, she gets a little too cozy with a colorful cast of characters and a couple of jellyfish. Will she find his killer before her past drags her under? From one of the most acclaimed new mystery writers working today comes a riveting novel of suspense that will have you guessing until the last page is turned.