Hi there. My name is Tanelsa Parson and I’m a defense attorney in the practice of Castle & Parson in Uniontown, PA. Sally Castle, my partner, said it might be a good idea for me to stop by and give you the scoop, so here I am.

Where to start? I met Sally a little over a year ago, when we were both working in the public defender’s office in Fayette County. It didn’t take me long to figure out Sally was what my grandma used to call “a pistol.” She’s a whip-smart lawyer with the tenacity of a dog with a bone. Which is incredibly helpful when you are a woman in a man’s world. She’s also got a heart as big as the Allegheny Mountains – which gets her into a jam quite frequently. Fortunately, I am a tad more practical.

Let me explain.

She left the PD shortly after we met. It couldn’t have been more than a few months. She pitched a partnership to me. She had a good business plan and I was on board with her goals. See, working for the PD is rewarding because you get to help those who can’t afford a lawyer. But it’s a limiting, too. You can’t pick your clients. You represent who the boss says you do. And there are a lot of people who come through our doors who really need our help, but we can’t take them on because of the rules. Ordinary people don’t understand the hoops you have to jump through to qualify for state-provided legal representation.

That’s a whole other rant.

Anyway, it’s a good thing I did take Sally up on her offer because her heart would have sunk this new practice within three months. She’d take on every sob story who walked through the door. Me, I’m a bit more practical. Yes, I want to help folks but you need to have paying clients in order to keep the lights on.

Sally is also willing to go a bit beyond traditional legal representation. Take our latest client, Noah Freeman. He hasn’t been charged with a crime. But his mother is freaking out that he might get himself in trouble over this dead girl, Maddie Tilgher. To be honest, the mother freaks me out a little. I get it. Her son is autistic. People don’t really understand the spectrum, so it’s not unrealistic that they’d think he was up to something when he’s not. But this woman is way overboard. It makes me wonder what she’s hiding.

I know Sally feels it, too. Maybe that’s why she’s got us working more as PIs than lawyers on this one.

I don’t want to make it sound like Sally’s got her head in the clouds and I’m the grounded one, though. We help each other. For example, my wife and I are kinda at odds lately. See, she suddenly wants a baby after years of us agreeing that kids were not in the plan. Sally understands my side of the story and she’s got a good head on her shoulders.

And this is why we work so well together. We keep each other grounded.

Anyway, I gotta split. Freeman and his mother are coming in again. I really wish I knew why this woman has such a bug up her butt. I suppose we’ll figure it out sooner or later.

Thicker Than Water, A Laurel Highlands Mystery Book #6
Genre: Traditional Mystery
Release: September 2023
Format: Print, Digital
Purchase Link

Pennsylvania State Trooper Jim Duncan responds to a call regarding a missing autistic young man. When the boy is quickly found, Jim thinks the case is closed…until the young man insists the police need to help a “sleeping blue lady” and leads them to a dead woman in an abandoned shack, clad in only her underwear.

Meanwhile, defense attorney Sally Castle is searching for a troubled young woman who wandered into her office wanting protection from an unnamed man…and disappeared before Sally could obtain any details. Sally is bothered by the incident and unnerved when she discovers that Jim’s dead body and her missing potential client are the same person.

Jim and Sally soon discover the young woman led a secret double life, with ties to the autistic boy who started it all. As Jim and Sally investigate, the case takes increasingly ominous turns, uncovering hidden money and a seamy underbelly of sex work, before turning into a desperate race to stop a killer. Can Jim and Sally solve the case in time to stop the murder of an innocent boy?

About the author
Liz Milliron is the author of The Laurel Highlands Mysteries series, set in the scenic Laurel Highlands of Southwestern Pennsylvania, and The Homefront Mysteries, set in Buffalo, NY during the early years of World War II. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Pennwriters, and International Thriller Writers. A recent empty-nester, Liz lives outside Pittsburgh with her husband and a retired-racer greyhound.

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