J V Speyer

Summer is back in Boston, bringing with it the anniversary of a protest that turned into a massacre. It's a somber occasion, but one that blends into the sea of police brutality incidents across the country for Agent Luis Gomes - until his partner, State Police Detective Donovan Carey, is accused of a terrible crime. Donovan knows he was nowhere near the crime, but eyewitness testimony is conflicting and unreliable. His own agency is desperate to be seen doing the right thing after a string of scandals and is more concerned about regaining public trust than about facts. Luis is assigned to investigate the case. Can he put aside his love for Donovan and find out what really happened? And when he does, will he be able to hold onto the principles he's believed in since childhood? Prodigal includes discussion of police brutality and of Bostonians rioting, which has been a popular pastime since the late 17th century.

Two uncles from vastly different worlds. One orphaned child. Will a conspiracy that bridges an ocean somehow build a family, or will state secrets keep Eric and Dan apart forever? Eric is a genius. He's a professor of environmental studies at an Ivy League university, an inventor, and one of the most respected scientists in his field. He doesn't think about his birth family much, and the feeling is mutual - or he thinks it is, until a call from a local hospital throws his carefully ordered world into chaos. Dan has seen and done a lot in his time as an Army Ranger. Thrown into civilian life by an injury, he's happy to work for Five Star Security doing what he does best - until he gets a call from his hometown with devastating news. His beloved older brother, Chris, has been killed in a car accident, along with his bride, Selene. Custody of their amazing four-year-old daughter has been left not to Dan, with whom all three were close, but to Selene's younger half-brother, Eric - a man Dan has never met and who didn't bother showing up for the wedding. Dan is devastated. Finding Eric to be handsome and kind, if reserved, doesn't help. Selene was wonderful, but her whole family was a pack of vipers. Eric can't be any different, can he? It doesn't take long for Dan's boss to figure out why Selene and Chris would leave Ada in Eric's custody. Selene was a member of the royal family of Corvia, and Eric has managed to avoid the spotlight for the past decade and more. As the investigation into the car wreck shows it was no accident, Dan and Eric must join forces to keep their shared niece safe. But can they keep their hearts safe from each other - especially when old secrets come to light that threaten their newfound love?

The would-be highwayman killer's case is closed, and Luis has been cleared to return to work. He and Donovan are starting their new life together, and while they're both a little new at this whole "stable relationship" thing they're determined to make things work. When people start dying at Assonet Ledge, it seems like a typical case for Donovan until one of the victims turns out to be a missing person from out of state, bringing the FBI into one of Donovan's cases yet again. The park ranger at the site is everything Donovan isn't, and Donovan finds himself wondering if his partner isn't falling into old habits. Luis struggles to understand Donovan's jealousy, which puts a strain on their relationship and the case. To top things off, there may be forces at work here that go back long before humans showed their faces, forces Luis can't hope to understand. Will those forces propel the case, and Luis and Donovan's rekindled romance, off a cliff?