Under a Broken Sky: A Novel

by Kris Calvin

Overview

In this Sacramento-set thriller perfect for fans of Meg Gardiner, Emma Lawson uncovers greed and deception for a living, but this time is different. If only she knew this killer can hear her.

He can see her.

One year into her prized role as the youngest ethics investigator in California's history, Emma suspects corruption in the state's billion dollar expansion to train travel. That unwittingly puts her on a killer's trail - a killer who will do anything to reach his illicit million dollar payday, including personally eliminating Emma Lawson as a threat.

Detective Alibi Morning Sun sees connections where no one else does. For him, a drowning at a lake, a fire in a storage facility and a murder by the river carry a thread soaked in blood.

As Emma follows the money and Alibi traces bullets and bodies, the killer counts down to his grand finale. With each mounting danger, it quickly becomes apparent that the corruption Emma has been digging for is real— and it’s deadly.

Three days. Two days. Now only one…

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643859057
Publisher:	CROOKED LANE BOOKS
Publication date:	07/12/2022
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	913 KB

About the Author

A multi-award-winning author, Kris Calvin was educated in forensics psychology and economics and has been honored by the California Governor's office and legislature for her leadership in child advocacy. Kris writes thrilling and suspenseful mystery/crime fiction stories for adults, in which no harm comes to children. A single mom, Kris and her kids are faithful SF Giants and Warriors sports fans, but their favorite place is the public library.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Under a Broken Sky:
“Calvin skillfully crafts an energetic story . . . Strong plotting”
—Shelf Awareness

“Riveting and sophisticated, Under A Broken Sky is a wonderfully complex and surprising page-turner. Sue Grafton meets John Lescroart when a determined and honorable investigator must risk everything in search of her past and in search of justice. Do not miss this!”
—Hank Phillippi Ryan, USA Today bestselling author of Her Perfect Life

“Calvin crafts an intricate, torn-from-the-headlines mystery with a rich cast of fascinating, devious, and wryly-observed suspects. A high-stakes suspense thriller!” 
—Mark Wheaton, critically-acclaimed author of Emily, Eternal

“Calvin’s voice is strong and unique, making it easy to get lost in the story . . . An outstanding addition to a powerful and entertaining thriller series.”
—Tamsen Schultz, award-winning author of the Windsor and Tildas Island series

“Calvin deftly weaves together threads of several intriguing mysteries to create a rich, complex tapestry of corruption, betrayals and lies. Just as compelling are the believable, three-dimensional characters and the way their lives collide and intertwine.This suspenseful, emotional page-turner should shoot to the top of everyone’s must-read list!”
—Brianna Labuskes, bestselling author of A Familiar Sight

“Kris Calvin’s Under a Broken Sky gives you a father-daughter relationship, fraught with complication, that sticks with you long after you’ve finished the last page. Abandonment. Acceptance. Forgiveness. Heady concepts to weave into a crime novel, but Calvin does it like a champ . . . More, please!”
—Tracy Clark, winner of the 2020 Sue Grafton Memorial Award

“Shrewdly plotted with compelling characters, Calvin has crafted a chilling page-turner, one you’ll be reading late into the night.” 
—James L’Etoile, author of Black Label, Dead Drop, and the Detective Penley series

“With Under A Broken Sky Kris Calvin delivers another intriguing mystery, filled with compelling characters and a story that proves all politics is local and all murders are personal.”
—Eric Beetner, author of All The Way Down

Praise for All That Fall:
“A rich and detailed story.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“An intriguing and suspenseful story of corruption and murder that grips readers from the outset and holds their attention throughout.”
—City Book Review

"A sizzling thriller chock-full of suspense and intrigue." 
—Robert Dugoni, bestselling author of The Tracy Crosswhite series

“Suspenseful, complex, and engaging.”
—Meg Gardiner, author of the UNSUB series

From the Publisher

2022-04-12
Yes, there’s more corruption in the Sacramento city government, and yes, it’s uncomfortably personal for ethics investigator Emma Lawson.

As the newest member of the Hayden Government Ethics Commission, Emma expects to be confronted with a certain amount of dirty laundry. But she’s not prepared for the whirlwind that begins with the maybe-not-so-accidental drowning of Jonathan Hill, son of former Sacramento Mayor Frances Hill, and continues with arson at Ideal Storage that sends one victim to the hospital and another to the morgue. Lt. Alibi Morning Sun, head of major crimes in the police department’s investigative division, has one eye on a series of visions that confirm Emma’s sense that something’s rotten with the pricey expansion of the city's rail system and the other eye on Emma herself. For quite a while, however, Alibi’s attentions barely register because Emma’s been seriously distracted by the unexpected reappearance of her artist father, Atticus Lawson, who abandoned the family when Emma was a child and has now been arrested for assaulting a man who threw a glass of wine at a painting he’d exhibited in a local gallery. How can she possibly make peace with her absentee father even as she’s bent on tracking down the person who’s already killed two people and targeted two more, including Emma herself? For all the shuttling between personal and institutional loyalties, Calvin doesn’t bring the same intensity that marked the search for the killer of Emma’s ex-husband in All That Fall (2021), and readers who haven’t been paying close attention will blink in confusion when the criminal mastermind is unmasked.

Lots of interesting city employees given much too much to do.

Kirkus Reviews