Grace Hartwell isn’t my real name. I mean, it is now. But I wasn’t born with it. I changed it shortly after my upgrade to Jacksonville Beach, after sharing a trailer in Central Florida with my addict mother and her lowlife boyfriend for most of my life. An experience that left me with emotional scars that took years to get over. Mostly over.
I work in JSO, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, in Homicide. I’ve been here for five years, and I love everything about my job.
“So, ready to go out with me yet?”
Almost everything.
Lance Elliott was leaning against my desk, a regular stop after his daily ninety-minute lunch.
“Same answer as yesterday. No. I don’t date coworkers.”
“You don’t know what you’re missing.”
“I think I have a pretty good idea.”
“He bothering you again?”
Miami Vice, a.k.a., Detectives Kirby Cruise and Terry Spencer, joined Homicide around the same time as I did. They were known as Miami Vice because of their previous stint in Vice, and because Cruise looked like a younger version of Charlie Hunnam, Spencer the spitting image of Donald Glover.
Best friends, they made a point to partner on all of their cases. They also worked out together, usually double dated, and rented apartments next door to each other. Good guys, the two of them, and good cops.
“I got it, thanks guys.”
Thankfully I had a reason to leave. A double homicide in Ribault. I brushed past Elliott and headed to the parking garage.
The crime scene, a small double wide next to the water, was already crawling with fire and JSO personnel. I showed my badge and went inside.
A woman and a child were on the floor, leaning up against the wall. They’d both been stabbed, multiple times.
Blood on the bodies, blood on the floor, blood like thick red snow splattered across the fake wood panel wall.
Landel didn’t usually give me these cases. No kids, that was the deal.
My vision blurred, and a headache started at the base of my skull as I knelt down next to the child. She looked to be no older than five.
I stood up, dizzy, and stepped outside.
The next thing I knew I was waking up in bed.
My own, and alone, thankfully.
I walked to the bathroom, kicking the short leather skirt and halter top on the floor out of my way.
Mascara, eyeliner, fake eyelashes, and various eyeshadows were strewn around the counter. A tube of lipstick was on the floor behind the toilet.
Damn. I wish she’d clean up after herself.
FIVE THINGS I SEE
Series: A Detective Grace Hartwell Thriller, Book 1
Genre: Psychological Thriller, Police Procedural
Release: August 2026
Format: Print, Digital
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
If pain is the price of strength, Grace is one of the strongest people you will ever meet.
Five crime scenes connected by a visible pattern.
A serial killer terrorizes the citizens of Jacksonville, and the entire police force is focused on cracking the case―but will they be able to stop the murderer before more bodies are found?
Three suspects who all tell a different story.
Homicide detective Grace Hartwell’s knack for reading people has never let her down―until now. Is the killer playing a clever game or is she losing touch with herself?
One determined detective with a taste for justice.
Grace’s life is dedicated to her work. But she has a dark secret―a secret that could jeopardize not only her job but her life . . .
Meet the author
Wendy Church is the author of the non-cozy and semibiographical Jesse O’Hara mystery series, where a misanthropic woman with a million dollar brain and a ten cent personality travels around the world stumbling over crimes. Her debut novel, Murder on the Spanish Seas, was named a Booklist Top Ten Debut Mystery/Thriller. Wendy’s Shadows of Chicago mystery series is set in and around the restaurant industry in Chicago, its first installment, Knife Skills, received a starred Kirkus review. Read about Wendy’s books at Kirkus, on her website, or occasionally on Instagram. Wendy lives in Seattle with her partner, and when not writing serves as a full-time personal valet to several furry cohabitors.