The body slumps over the steering wheel. Pools of blood going tacky on the dash. Two shots to the back of the head.

A mafia-style hit in a small town.

Special Agent Violet Darger must make sense of this savagery. Figure out how brutality like this could happen in rural Michigan.

The victim had been living the American dream. A small-business owner who built a construction empire. Started a family. Coached youth hockey. He seemed to have it all.

But his surface life didn’t tell the full story.

He carried dark secrets to the grave. Left clues which offer more questions than answers, clues that seem to lead Darger to Detroit.

In the city, she finds despair. Corruption. Decay.

Blocks of vacant buildings line the streets. Crumbling. Caving in. It resembles ancient ruins more than a modern American city. Concrete caverns waiting to be explored.

And there, among the rubble, she gets swept up in the hunt for a notorious hit man.

He kills for profit. Navigates the brutal world of organized crime. Harbors secrets of his own, albeit domestic ones.

He holds the answers to all of Darger’s questions, but only if she can catch him.

This pulse-pounding thriller will have you on the edge of your seat until the final page. Fans of John Sandford, Karin Slaughter, Harlan Coben, and Lisa Jackson should check out the Violet Darger series.

The books in the series can be read in any order, so grab Bad Blood and get started today.

Praise for the Violet Darger series:

"Un-put-downable! I cannot wait for this series to grow. If you love Sandford, Slaughter, Kava, Stelljes and Deaver, you’ll LOVE Vargus & McBain!" -- Melody M

"The Violet Darger books are honestly the best detective novels I've ever read." -- Devin

"Vargus and McBain have, in Violet Darger, created a character that absolutely stands up with some of the greats -- Phillip Marlowe, Dave Robicheaux, Elvis Cole, Charlie Parker, August Dupin, Jack Reacher, Harry Bosch, etc." -- Lucinda E. Snyder

"Wow, just wow! If you like scare-you-half-to-death mystery books this is the one for you. It starts with a bang and just doesn't stop." -- Ada Lavin

"This series is full of suspense, action, and lots of murder." -- EllenAn

"Violet Darger is a unique, incredible character, and I immensely enjoyed taking this journey with her." -- Cat

"A rush of excitement, twists and turns." -- C. Munger

"Insightful, bloody. Page turner about the corruption of morality and warped thinking patterns." -- Bella from Readingnstuff.com

"Refuses to let go until you have read the last sentence." -- Bloodymummer

"Reading a Violet Darger novel always feels like coming home to an old friend—we hang out, we drink some coffee, we talk about her and Loshak’s personal lives, we interview victims’ families, we chase down some serial killers—all the stuff you normally do with your friends, except better. More exciting." -- eden Hudson, author of Revenge of the Bloodslinger

"These books are kind of a nice combination of crime fiction and horror. Ok nice might not be the right word to use. How about gruesome. Or thrilling? Terrifying? Gripping? They're all that. They suck you in right away. And you just can't put them down until it's over." -- Melanie

"If you are a fan of Silence of the Lambs, this book is a spiritual successor." -- Amazon customer

"Vargus and McBain spin a fine tale with characters I want to climb inside -- but not in a weird way." -- Jeanne Tarrants