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A Portland Murders novel · January 26, 2027
PLAY ME ONCE
Kate Nichols returns. Grace MacKenzie thought she’d found love. She found a trap instead. A murdered reporter, a buried conspiracy, and her own name at the top of the suspect list.
Advance copies go out November 17. The team closes November 1.
The Portland Murders, in order
Every story stands alone. Read in order, the characters cross between books.
Tangled Darkness
If I Go Quiet
Lethal Loyalty
Play Me Once
TANGLED DARKNESS
A Psychological Medical Thriller
Novel · Rowan Prose Publishing
After psychiatrist Leslie Schoen’s coworker turns up dead, she uncovers a web of corruption and battles malevolent forces to expose the truth, confronting past demons to protect her new life with her wife.
“Thought-provoking insights paired with unexpected twists … compelling for readers interested in the intersection of murder mystery and psychological conundrums past and present … ”
—Midwest Book Review
Available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook
M.M. Desch
…Storytelling at the edge
Mary Desch practiced psychiatry over three decades in Minnesota, Arizona, and Portland, Oregon. Her childhood attraction to the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine grew into a college love for detective fiction. Not surprisingly, she leaned toward the psychological. As it turns out, medical and psychiatric work is a lot like a detective’s sleuthing. When not writing or investigating another facet of writing, Mary enjoys hiking and long dog walks with her wife and their rascal mini schnauzer, Portland food carts, golf, and the WNBA.
Her debut, Tangled Darkness, made the 2023 Chanticleer Clue Awards shortlist and is a 2025 Readers’ Favorite finalist.