Sticks and Stones

Praise for the first K.J. Larsen mystery
Full of breezy comebacks and characters that come off the page.

-Kirkus Reviews

What does a woman do when she discovers her husband is an incurable cheater? If she’s Cat DeLuca, she launches the Pants On Fire Detective Agency to do what two years of unholy matrimony taught her: she catches cheaters. After client Cleo Jones shoots her cheating husband’s bum full of buckshot, he disappears, taking her money, her dog, and her sister with him. Cat promises to return the dog and money if her client stops shooting at Walter. She finds the dog and a mysterious bag full of cash, and then she finds Walter, his very dead body still warm. The cops quickly arrest Cleo for the murder of her husband. Cat is determined to prove her client’s innocence and it’s not an easy sell. Cat’s investigation leads to four players with secrets: a childhood friend, a gambler, a construction tycoon, and a legendary Chicago designer. But when forensic evidence suggests the detective knows more about the murder than she’s telling, Cat faces the certain loss of her agency…and maybe much more.
One day, three sisters, Julianne, Kristen, and Kari Larsen, linked by a voracious love of mysteries, set off to write their own. Sticks and Stones is the second book in the Cat DeLuca mystery series, following Liar, Liar, one of Library Journal’s Best Mysteries of 2010. The sisters live in the Pacific Northwest and Chicago area. kjlarsenauthor.com