Goslyn County

In McKnight’s appealing debut, rapid population growth in the community of Goslyn, Va., comes with a price—a dramatic uptick in crime, including burglaries of three tax refund offices belonging to businessman Bertrand Lewis. When Goslyn PD Det. Olivia Winston investigates, her inquiries intersect with those of Maureen Jeffries, a veteran IRS special agent, who’s looking into the burglaries to see if they’re connected to dozens of fraudulent tax returns Lewis’s company had prepared—possibly the product of his sloppiness with his clients’ data, and possibly the result of something more sinister. The latter theory becomes more probable after Lewis is attacked. Meanwhile, Olivia and Maureen fall hard for each other and eventually become involved romantically. (Readers should be prepared for some explicit sex.) The author’s especially good at making her leads realistic, and many will hope that their stories continue in a sequel. McKnight is off to a promising start. (Self-published)