Born and raised in South Carolina, Sandra Parshall was a reporter for most of her career writing for myriad publications, including The Baltimore Evening Sun.
She never considered writing a mystery until a dream inspired her debut, The Heat of the Moon. That novel won the Agatha Award for Best First Novel and launched a series that now spans six books.
Using her childhood experience growing up as the granddaughter of a small-town police chief, she’s created a community readers can’t help falling in love with.
If you’re craving a small-town mystery, here are all six books in the Rachel Goddard Mystery series, in order.
The Heat of the Moon
It should be a normal night for young veterinarian Rachel Goddard. Storms always bring a fair bit of chaos, like a mother rushing her basset hound in after it was struck by a car.
But when the toddler in her tow gets separated and screams for her mommy, it dredges up a memory Rachel didn’t know was buried. One where her sister cried the same words during a thunderstorm just like this one.
Rachel doesn’t know what it means or why it carries such emotional weight. Asking her mother is out of the question. Questions about their family history are forbidden.
Desperate for answers, Rachel digs into her memories as they take her halfway across the country. What she finds devastates her world and forces her to make a heartbreaking choice.
Disturbing the Dead
Rachel Goddard is starting over. She’s moved to a place where she doesn’t have any memories attached hoping she can create new ones. And so far, things are looking good.
She’s falling in love with Tom Bridger, a chief deputy in Mason County Sheriff’s Department. Tom has his ownpast he’s trying to escape, only it keeps pulling him back.
When the bones of a Melungeon woman appear on a remote mountaintop ten years after she disappeared, the evidence indicates murder.
The case is shrouded in secrets, including his father’s own initial investigations into her disappearance. And there might be a witness.
As Rachel gets close to the teenager hoping to both keep her safe and untangle past events, they realize someone wants to silence them both. If Rachel and Tom want a future, they need to face the past.
Broken Places
When Rachel Goddard hears a murder, she’s dragged into a murder investigation.
Within hours of each other, Cam and Meredith Taylor were killed. And there are no shortage of suspects.
The couple had loyal friends and bitter enemies thanks to their outspoken activism. Except, when their newspaper was going under, Cam started blackmailing someone to save it.
To make things even more complicated, their daughter is Rachel’s deputy boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend who wants Tom back. And Rachel’s childhood friend is one of the main suspects.
With conflicting loyalties and complicated secrets pulling the couple apart, Tom and Rachel have to figure out who they can trust before it’s too late.
Under the Dog Star
Missing pets are becoming an epidemic in Mason County, Virginia where posters cover the walls of Rachel Goddard’s veterinary clinic. Everyone agrees the most likely culprit is the pack of feral dogs roaming the hills and attacking livestock.
And when Gordan Hall, a prominent physician is found with his throat torn open in his yard, the community blames the dogs. The only question is which dogs.
Hall’s son believes it’s the feral dogs. Others believe it’s someone with a trained attack dog. Sheriff investigator Tom Bridger believes it’s tied to illegal dogfighting.
All Rachel cares about is the safety of the dogs and she makes more than a few enemies trying to find the feral pack a home.
It’s clear there are two killers—one human and one dog—but who they are and why is buried in a web of lies more complex and brutal than Tom and Rachel ever imagined.
Bleeding Through
Taking teenagers to clean up roadside trash was supposed to be a routine outing for veterinarian Rachel Goddard and Deputy Sheriff Tom Bridger.
But when one of the girls finds the body of her missing sister wrapped in plastic, they’re suddenly in the middle of a murder investigation.
The girl was trying to prove a Mason County man was wrongly convicted of murder. The victim’s family was vocally upset, but is that enough for murder? And when a stalker turns his sights on Rachel, the danger gets all too real.
Could the cases be connected? If the girl was right then there’s a murderer running free. One with a powerful motivator to kill again.
Poisoned Ground
The residents of Mason County, Virginia are divided. Half want the development company to build the sprawling resort for the wealthy. The rest are adamantly against it.
Veterinarian Rachel Goddard is one of the residents most opposes to the project. Her stance makes things difficult for her new husband, Deputy Sheriff Tom Bridger.
But when a well-liked couple is murdered on the farm they refuse to sell, it looks like a case of the supporters doing whatever it takes to get the resort built.
As more attacks happen and the community turns to all-out war with each other, the truth gets buried underneath the violence. Rachel might know exactly who is behind the attacks.
The only question is can she bring the evidence to light before it’s too late?
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