My murder mystery Double Blind is intense and filled with very dramatic – and occasionally gruesome – scenes. Two detectives are hunting a serial killer while the killer is hunting them. It’s not a “cozy” mystery.

The two detectives are partners, but they are also friends – and that’s where the book gets the charm readers love.

I was adding a link for the audio book version and I happened upon this scene. A recent review noted how real the characters are, and that’s because of how they interact, their dialogue, their unspoken moments… but also how

they give each other crap, as friends do.

This scene made me chuckle about how much they like and trust each other, and what good friends they are.

Check it out.

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After swirling the wine around in her glass, Carly took a long drink. She closed her eyes and let her head ease back into the couch cushion. “Okay, what happened out there?”

Sergio shrugged. “I got ambitious and—”

“I heard what you told the lieutenant. Now I want the truth.”

“That is the truth.”

“Hey.” She leaned forward. “It’s me.”

Her eyes stayed on his, not like an angry wife or an upset mother, but like a friend and partner who needed to know. Who deserved to know.

“Okay, I froze.” Sergio glanced around the room. “I wanted it to be our guy so I could take him down, or maybe just get the thing ended, but also . . . I was thinking about Franklin. And the victims. I was thinking about a lot of stuff.”

“Well, there’s the problem.”

“I wasn’t focused.”

She wagged a finger at him. “You were trying to think.”

“Thanks.”

“That’s not what I mean and you know it. I mean you’re a good cop and you were analyzing things when you should have been in the zone and reacting.”

He stared at the beer bottle. “Maybe.”

“Not maybe. Let me ask you this.” She sat up, pointing a finger at him with her wine glass hand. “Did you think it was our killer? I mean inside, on a primal level, where we just react, did you think it was the guy?”

“I felt like . . .” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I thought it could be something bad, but, no. On a gut level, I didn’t think I was staring our serial killer in the face.”

She sat back. “I’ve gone through a few doors with you, Marty. I won’t be worried when we go through the next one, and don’t you be. What happened tonight, that could have happened to any of us. Tomorrow’s my turn. But tonight, if I’m wearing the wire and approaching that guy, I’m thinking it’s our killer. I’ll be ready to unload my magazine into him if he asked for a cigarette.”

“I wasn’t that bad.”

“That’s right. You weren’t. So drink up. We live to fight another day.”

“Tell that to Breitinger.”

“I did.” She swigged her wine. “He gets it. He told me you were off your game tonight and I told him you’d be back on it tomorrow when it’s my turn.”

“When did you have time for all that?”

“You took a while to get out of that surveillance gear.”

“What did he say?”

“He said maybe the operation needs to slow down.”

“It can’t slow down! It’s been—”

“Chill, partner. I told him it can’t slow down, too. We have zero apprehensions and a lot of victims. Slowing down is not the answer.”

Sergio eyed her. “So now what?”

“Well.” She folded her hands across her abdomen, securing the wine glass between her fingers. “He said I should take you out and get you drunk. So, cheers.”

Sergio took a gulp of his beer. “I should drink here more often. Kyle likes the good stuff.”

“Kyle sticks to wine.”

“Well, I appreciate you buying good beer in case I stop by. Last time I was here, you made me drink Bud.”

“I didn’t buy it. You gave us that last Christmas, as a present. I finally put it in the fridge yesterday.”

“How’d you know I’d be coming?”

“Christmas is coming, Marty. There are these things called Christmas parties. I knew somebody’d drink it.”

He took another gulp. “You’ll need to get more, because I’m going to drink the whole case.”

She swirled her wine. “That’ll be difficult. You only gave us a six-pack.”

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A smile, right? And this happens immediately after a very intense scene.

It’s an awesome book. You should check it out.

111 reviews, and almost all of them are 5-stars.

They can’t all be relatives.