DEATH ON A DEADLINE—EVEN BEFORE SHE TAKES THE CASE SHE’S ALMOST OUT OF TIME…

“She is smart, tough, and tenacious... a wonderfully entertaining read.”—Publisher’s Weekly,
Unlicensed P.I. Casey Jones is back in prison – just visiting – but even the death row inmate she’s come to interview can see she’s one shade of green away from a full-blown panic attack.

Fifteen years ago, this hard-boiled babe walked out of a Florida prison after serving an eighteen-month sentence, sporting160 pounds of “nobody kicks my ass” and a couple of inches of dark roots at the base of her bleach job (“simply to confuse people into underestimating me”)--and swearing she’d never set foot in a prison again. But the family of the convicted woman just isn’t buying the story that she killed her cop husband,, and they’ve hired North Carolina’s mouthiest female sleuth to find enough new evidence to get her a new trial and save her from lethal injection—in a month.

No way to hit that deadline! And nobody wants her to take this case-– not Bobby D., her super-size fellow private investigator, not Bill Butler, the lean and long-lashed Raleigh PD detective whom she is studiously “not dating,” and not even the convicted woman who abandoned all hope long before she entered prison. But Bill told her – twice – not to take the case, and no man tells Casey what to do. She’s definitely taking it,—and the ride begins…

OUT OF TIME manages to tag all the bases: all the suspense of a taut thriller, leavened by Casey’s hilarious wisecracks, and just when you think she’s as brittle as her bleached locks, her humanity breaks through, revealing that no matter how loosely she follows the rules, she is deeply committed to seeing justice done. For all her resemblance to Archie Goodwin, Rex Stout’s wisecracking leg man, Casey’s her own woman: Casey Jones, karmic avenger.

The only lead the family can offer is a call from the presiding judge. He’s convinced that justice went awry somewhere along the line, and is planning to share his suspicions with Casey, but he’s unable to keep the appointment due to his own untimely demise. Now Casey’s sure something’s hinky. Fortunately, she has all the right connections to sniff out the information she needs. Working at top speed, she puts it all together and makes enough trouble to land her on the 6:00 news. That gets the cops’ attention.

Still, while the law is dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s, it’s finally up to Casey to bring the killer to justice in a dramatic capture that is at once as harrowing as it is hilarious. And, in a case bumped all the way to the Supreme Court, the ruling is finally rendered: Casey Jones’s ass is every bit as gorgeous as she has always claimed.

OUT OF TIME (and the rest of this fine series) will appeal to fans of all female sleuth mysteries—private eyes like Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone, Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshawski, Laura Lippman’s Tess Monaghan, Marcia Muller’s Sharon McCone, and Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum, as well as their tough and witty male antecedents. If you ever flipped over Philip Marlowe, Spenser, or of course, the immortal Wolfe and his buddy Archie, you’ll fall in love with their direct descendant, Casey Jones, Private Eye.

Evanovich herself said: “Casey Jones joins the ranks of smart and gutsy heroines. The South will never be the same. Don't miss her."—Janet Evanovich