Arson Takes a Dare

An obscenely rich lottery winner tricks Marisa Adair into joining forces with a famous Florida private detective to investigate her daughter's twenty-year-old murder. During a serial arsonist's reign of terror, Mayla died in a fiery inferno. The newly wealthy mother wants to dedicate her considerable resources to finding her daughter's killer and bringing him to justice. Marisa is busy with problems of her own. After the death of her troubled brother, she discovers a vicious stalker targeted him online. The stalker is the bully who had made their childhood a living hell. She decides to track down the bully, confront her, and hold her accountable for her crimes. Alisa was a beautiful girl. She was also the ringleader of a gang of bullies. Now, as an adult, she seeks out the weakest of the herd to torment through the anonymity of her computer. She also holds the key to dark secrets, with the chilling tendrils reaching from her childhood to the present. After Alisa's brutal murder, Marisa is the number one suspect. When she's arrested, her friends rush to help her. Although her antics drive him mad, Alex is determined to clear her. Althea, her friend and former teacher, is combat ready after decades of teaching elementary school. Her support group, as ruthless as they are loyal, goes to great lengths to help their fellow member. Tara, her best friend and in need of her own twelve-step program for her shoe addiction, demands hard choices of her boyfriend, the lawman who put Marisa behind bars. Marisa's cat joins the investigation. Laithe, the part-Abyssinian cat whose sense of fun and mischief lands him-and Marisa-squarely into danger, has to use all of his feline skills to save her from life behind bars. Marisa once lived a chaotic life of drinking and partying. Hitting bottom left her existence in shambles. Like a phoenix, she rose from the ashes. Now she's a savvy and respected Human Resources administrator. Accused of a murder she didn't commit, Marisa faces losing her hard-won new identity . . . and possibly her life.