Angela Richman, Death Investigator

The last thing Chouteau County death investigator Angela Richman wants to do during the holidays is her job. So it's with some trepidation that she agrees to help the desperate Mr. and Mrs. LaRouche when they show up on her doorstep. Their daughter Juliet is missing. She was last seen leaving a high-school party just before midnight, and they'd like Angela's help getting their trusted local detectives involved. The officer assigned to the case-Chouteau newcomer Det. Jace Budewitz-is far too blunt and impolite for their liking. And with the weather murderously cold, they can't bear the thought that their little princess is in the harsh winter wilderness. Discreetly investigating Juliet's disappearance, Angela finds herself struggling to break through the silence from the rich teenagers who knew Juliet and their infuriatingly detached parents. She also discovers that their vicious bias against the local working class has cast a shadow over the case. The more she digs, the less Angela can comprehend the lengths the one percent will go to protect their own. Angela must work quickly as she searches for answers with the acute awareness that Juliet LaRouche edges closer to becoming just a memory...

"Ageless" Hollywood diva Jessica Gray is finishing the last leg of her one-woman show in St Louis, Missouri, and the nearby town of Chouteau Forest is dazzled. During the show, she humiliates three homeless women onstage, fires her entourage-not for the first time-and makes a bitter enemy of the town's powerful patriarch. After she collapses at an after-show party and is rushed to the hospital, she ignores the advice of her doctors and discharges herself in order to return to LA. On the way to the airport, she suffers a deadly coughing fit. It was poison. When Angela Richman's friend, Mario, is arrested for the murder and faces the death penalty, she is compelled to investigate. With so many grudges held against the actress and Mario's life on the line, the stakes are higher than ever.

Angela Richman, Chouteau County death investigator, finds herself deep in the Missouri woods on a perfect spring day. But there is nothing idyllic about her grim walk-a body has been discovered in a muddy creek, and Detective Jace Budewitz wants Angela on the scene. Terri Gibbons, the popular Forest High track star who went missing eight months ago, has been found strangled. Could a message found in Terri's shoe hold the key to catching her killer? Chouteau Forest is a town of privilege and secrets, where everyone has something to hide. Can Angela overcome the many obstacles in her way to see justice served when the Forest's wealthy residents will go to any length to prevent the truth from being revealed?