Pink Balloons and Other Deadly Things (Carrie Carlin series Book 1)

Book One

When Carrie's husband, Rich, flies the family coop with his young, drop-dead gorgeous marketing director on the eve of Carrie's 40th birthday, the stress-coping skills she practices and preaches daily in her work as a biofeedback therapist fly out the door along with him. She can't eat. She hardly sleeps. When she does, her dreams are nightmares fraught with deadly specters. Her waking fantasies are equally lethal. Spying on the semi-nude bride-to-be, sunning herself by the family swimming pool, visions of stoning and scalping dance through Carrie's head. Then the bimbo is found floating face-down in the pool, a valuable gold chain, a gift to Carrie from Rich, ripped from her neck.

Homicide detective Ted Brodsky shows up at Carrie's office asking questions...about her impending divorce...about the necklace...about her emotional state...about her financial situation. A nosy neighbor has placed Carrie in the vicinity shortly before the murder. Carrie's fingerprints are on a toy boomerang discovered in the yard. And the very afternoon of the murder, Brodsky himself had stopped Carrie for speeding a few blocks from the scene. While Carrie has certainly wished her replacement dead and buried, she can't quite convince this stern, sexy cop that she didn't actually do it.

The scandal sheets go wild, Carrie's clients start canceling appointments, her ten-year-old son is forced to fight for her honor at school, her pre-teen-age daughter vows to give up on men forever, and the family dog develops bladder problems. Now the suburban single mom is on the run, finding out shocking secrets about her ex, her friends, and even her patients--as a killer targets her....