For fans of Louise Penny and Robert Dugoni, Illusionist is a contemporary crime thriller where PI McPherson must choose between killing an author at a writing retreat in the Pacific Northwest or letting a college student die.

When an illusionist joins the Pines & Quill writing retreat, one of the owners vanishes without a trace in the middle of everyone, but the surrounding would-be witnesses don’t see or hear a thing. That’s when crime boss Georgio Gambino makes a checkmate move against his nemesis, Sean McPherson. He forces a writer in residence to kill another writer and frame McPherson. In a video call, Gambino warns the writer, “If you don’t follow orders, your daughter will die.” Then, he pans the camera to prove access to her college dorm room.

McPherson discovers that Carmine Fiore, Gambino’s second in command, covets his boss role and is staging a coup. As Gambino’s soldiers traffic drugs, weapons, and humans, Fiore plants incriminating evidence against the notorious Sureños gang. Can McPherson leverage that knowledge for a temporary truce and the gang’s help?

The writers in residence—a former NASCAR driver, a professional triathlete, an architect turned house flipper, and a world-renowned magician who may not be who she appears to be—band together with McPherson to create the illusion of a lifetime.

A cross between Dr. Dolittle, Nanny McPhee, and a type-A Buddhist, Laurie Buchanan is an active listener, observer of details, payer of attention, reader and writer of books, kindness enthusiast, and red licorice aficionado. Her books have won multiple awards, including the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Gold Winner, the International Book Award Gold Winner, the National Indie Excellence Awards Winner, the Crime Fiction/Suspense Eric Hoffer Awards Finalist, and the PenCraft Award for literary excellence; they’ve also been a finalist for the CLUE Suspense/Thriller Book Awards. Laurie and her husband live in the Pacific Northwest in Boise, Idaho, where she enjoys long walks, bicycling, camping, and photography—because sometimes the best word choice is a picture. To learn more, please visit her website at www.lauriebuchanan.com.