Last Step Beyond the Pale

When her friendly greeting to the wannabe cowboy next door is met with raging hostility, Clementine Melville's lovely Victorian home is no longer the sanctuary she sought. The angry young man's Aunt Gladys, a recluse, gradually develops a friendship with her favorite local author by leaving notes and presents in the hide-y-hole of the oak tree between their yards. One is particularly disturbing. Unlike the characters you create in your murder mysteries, Ms. Melville, I know a real- life killer. Your neighbor, Gladys Rose.

During nighttime visits on Clementine's back deck, Gladys expresses concerns that her nephew, a bully and a bigot, plans to join the local police force. She confides in Clementine that this would be a big mistake but decides he would make a perfect villain in the book she is writing.

When Gladys mysteriously disappears, Clementine overcomes her writer's block and begins the next installment in her mystery series. Within its pages, she enlists the help of Sophia Cardinale, Kara Langley, and other members of the familiar cast of SC Mystery characters. Along with some new faces, they delve into the disappearances and the threat of white extremist groups lurking beneath the seemingly calm surface of their town.

A body in the garden, brownies laced with THC, a stolen computer, a missing neighbor, a bloody knife, a spider-web tattoo, and shots fired in the night frighteningly meld the real world with the imaginary one Melville is creating within the pages of her manuscript as the decisions she makes draw her closer to danger by bringing her one step beyond the pale.