If you asked me to list my greatest strengths, I’d immediately count them off like so:

• my persistent drive for justice and my terrier-like determination to get to the truth;
• my passion for helping the underdog no matter what their creed, culture or abilities;
• and my enviable position in the upper social circles of the Cleveland elite, enabling me to call on judges and politicians, law makers and law keepers to help me achieve my goals, while having no official office myself.

Of course, if you asked my PA, Penny Rickman, or the man who has become my ruggedly handsome friend and crime fighting contact, Detective Lance Delaney, they’d tell you something different. They’d tell you my worst traits would be:

• my persistence and my impulsiveness regardless of the danger I get myself into;
• my hard-headedness and complete inability to give up, even when the whole world looks like it’s about to swallow me up and spit me out,
• and the shameless way I enlist the aid of anyone I need to get the job done.

Some would say those traits are one and the same. I guess it depends on your perspective.

My name is Elizabeth McClaine. I’m not your usual twenty-something heroine. I was a poor girl from the boonies who won scholarships that allowed me to pursue a Harvard education in economics. That’s where I met and married my husband, Richard.

Oh, I looked as though I had it all—social status, wealth, and all the trappings of success. Just goes to show how wrong you can be. After trying for years, our first and only child came along. Maybe because of my age, Holly was born with Down’s syndrome and a cleft palate and lip. And so began a spiral down that left me all but broken.

As The Candidate’s Daughter opens, I’m fighting a losing battle with post-partum depression and alcoholism. It’s only when six-year-old Holly is kidnapped and held for ransom that reality hits me. With Richard’s campaign for senate running hot, the police on the wrong trail, and the cracks in our marriage opening into gaping crevasses, it’s up to me to find the beloved child I’d almost lost, and bring her home.

These days, however, I run a charitable trust set up by Charles McClaine, one of Cleveland’s biggest construction conglomerates, and my ex-father-in-law.

You’d think life would have settled down. You’d think boredom would have moved in.

Not so.

Child of the State opens when the governor requests that I preside over his pet project to bring young incarcerated mothers back into society. But when the first candidate, Stacy May Charms, goes on the run only hours after her release, it’s up to me to figure out why she ran, and who she was running from. And all the clues seemed to lead back to those who were supposed to be helping her.

Last, but not least, A Stolen Woman opens with Laney Donohue. Tough, impetuous, and hot-tempered, Laney takes matters into her own hands when she discovers her disabled sister beaten and cowering in the closet of the facility that’s supposed to be caring for her, her nurse aid, the only one who’d truly cared for her sister the way Laney would have, mysteriously missing.

And so begins Laney’s dogged search, taking her from her ex-criminal associates all the way to the brothels and casinos of Boston, with only her determination and loyalty driving her, and me desperate to save her.

Look out for the next riveting Elizabeth McClaine thriller.

Believe me, it’ll keep you up all night.

You can read more about Elizabeth in A Stolen Woman, the third book in the “Elizabeth McClaine” thriller series. The first book in the series is The Candidate’s Daughter.

“Find Me!”

Those are the words on the note crumpled in Laney Donohue’s disabled sister’s hand. All Laney knows is that the young nurse aid who wrote them was taken by a man, and no one stopped him. Now Laney intends to find out why.

Meanwhile, it’s Elizabeth McClaine’s birthday. Or it would be if her PA had gotten the date right. So what better time to leave her unwanted party than when the call comes telling her a client of her charitable foundation has been found beaten and left cowering in a closet, her nurse aid missing.

But from the moment Elizabeth asks the first question, it’s obvious someone out there is hell-bent on stopping her. And when the trail left by Laney Donohue leads to the brothels and casinos of an organized crime syndicate two states away, Elizabeth must pit her wits against the brilliant and ruthless crime boss to save her. The problem is. . .

. . .he already knows she’s coming.

Purchase Link
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Update: Child of the State is free on Amazon kindle and other online retailers for a limited time only (click on Buy Book) (2.24.18)

About the author
Catherine divides her time among numerous fictional worlds behind her keyboard. In past lives, she has sold international satellite capacity, worked in IT recruitment, and run her own communications store.

When Catherine isn’t writing, she’s dog-wrangling, wrestling with technology, or going crazy trying to maintain control of the yard.

She also writes dark, gritty thrillers under the pen name C. J. Lea.

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Or you can find her at authorcatherinelea.com, on Goodreads, Facebook, on Bookbub, and follow on Amazon.

All comments are welcomed.