I lock up the restaurant and step out onto the cobblestoned walk. I breathe in the fresh air, but my nose is still full of the scents of the night’s menu—Burgundy beef cheek, pork spareribs, and monkfish with roasted fennel. The kitchen had been hot, and I can feel the sweat that’s pooled under my arms in the stiff cotton chef’s coat, so I slip it off.

The moon is full tonight, and its light pools on the ground as though making a path only for me. That’s silly, of course, but I can’t help but think it could be a harbinger of things to come.

I cross the square and I’m home. It’s helpful to live so close to work, because of Harry, my son, the reason I’m here, in a small village in the Côte d’Or in France, far from the life I’d lived before him when I was married to one of the most powerful and richest men in the world.

Sometimes I can’t help myself—and I know it’s not healthy—but from time to time I search the internet for news about my ex-husband, Hank Tudor. He’d been married six times now; the first came before me, the other four after I’d disappeared from our home in Martha’s Vineyard. I was sure he was going to kill me because I wasn’t willing to give him what he wanted in the divorce: our daughter. But I left anyway—and left her behind. I’ve regretted it ever since, but if I hadn’t escaped, he would have also taken our son.

He hadn’t even known I was pregnant. I made sure of that.

Hank married his latest wife, Kate Parker two months ago, but oddly enough, I haven’t seen any photos or stories about them since their wedding—and the murder of his fifth wife. Maybe he wants to stay low key, but I find that unusual. Hank is all about spectacle. Something’s going on.

I’m hardly in a position to find out what that might be, though, being halfway across the world.

I go into Harry’s bedroom and watch him sleep, his chest rising softly with each breath, a glimpse of a smile on his lips. He’s probably dreaming about winning the World Cup. Harry’s life is all about soccer these days.

I pour myself a glass of wine and sit by the open window. The village is quiet; everyone’s sleeping. I let the hustle and bustle of the night’s shift drift away and feel my shoulders relax.

But everything changes in an instant, with one simple text message that I know is going to change everything:

We have your daughter.

A DEFIANT WOMAN
Series Name: A Modern Tudor Mystery, Book 2
Genre: Domestic Suspense
Release: March 2026
Format: Print, Digital, Audio
Purchase Link

Kate Tudor’s marriage to billionaire Hank Tudor continues to fray when his ex-wife resurfaces in the wake of their daughter’s kidnapping, in the latest novel in this genre-defying crime series.

Eight years ago, Nan Tudor escaped her husband, billionaire businessman Hank Tudor, afraid for her life and leaving a dead body behind—but in doing so, she abandoned her three-year-old daughter, Lizzie. Still wracked with guilt for that decision, she is living a quiet life as a restaurant cook in France with her son when she receives a mysterious text: “We have your daughter.”

Lured back to the scene of the crime on Martha’s Vineyard by a threat against Lizzie’s life, Nan believes the kidnapper is exacting revenge against her, stopping at nothing to do so—and discovers that she and her daughter may not be the only targets. Kate Parker—Hank’s sixth and latest wife—is also on the island and drawn into the kidnapper’s elaborate web of retaliation.

Keeping their alliance secret from Hank, Hank’s fixer Thomas Cromwell, investigator Steve Gardiner, and reporter Tom Seymour, the two women find themselves in a race against time to rescue Lizzie—and to make sure they both stay alive.

About the author
Karen E. Olson is the award-winning author of the Annie Seymour and Tattoo Shop mysteries and the Black Hat Thrillers. Her new book, A Defiant Woman, is the second in her Modern Tudor Mysteries series. She lives in Connecticut with her husband Chris Hoffman and her cat Seamus.