Play Me Once
The Portland Murders · Book Two · A Psychological Thriller · Coming January 26, 2027
Invisibility kept her safe. Being loved made her a target.
Official cover reveal coming November 2026.
Grace MacKenzie learned to go quiet as a girl, and she has kept the practice for decades. Not broken quiet. Strategic quiet. The kind that keeps the most important things hidden and whole. Living in drought-stricken Durango, Colorado, she buried her grief, her desires, and her identity behind a life she’d tailored to someone else’s pattern. Then Kate Nichols walked into her life. Sharp, magnetic, tender. And Grace, fifty now, opened the door she’d spent decades locking.
It was the most dangerous thing she ever did.
When Grace finds a dead reporter’s business card hidden in Kate’s belongings, the mask begins to crack. Not hers, but Kate’s. A reporter is dead. Grace’s Nebraska farm sale is being sabotaged. Her farm manager has fled. Someone with a key has been inside her office. Every thread leads back to the woman sleeping beside her.
Grace knows exactly how to fold herself back into silence. She’s done it a thousand times. Now she faces a choice she never imagined: retreat into the shadows that always kept her safe. Or she can stop folding.
The quiet ones don’t stay quiet forever.
For fans of Freida McFadden (The Boyfriend), Jeneva Rose (The Perfect Marriage), and Isha Raya (You’ll Never Forget Me).
The Details
- Release date: January 26, 2027 · preorder opens December 15, 2026
- Formats: Ebook (Kindle, free to read in Kindle Unlimited) and trade paperback · ~320 pages
- Series: The Portland Murders, Book 2 — told through three points of view, with Detective Aaron Davis returning from Tangled Darkness
- Publisher: Otherwise Occupied Press · Paperback ISBN 979-8-9910136-4-2 · eISBN 979-8-9910136-3-5
Start the story early
Kate Nichols — the manipulator at the dark heart of Play Me Once — was introduced in the prequel novella Lethal Loyalty, available now on Amazon and free to read in Kindle Unlimited. Read it first, and you’ll walk into January knowing exactly who to watch.
Read it before anyone else
My Advance Reader Team gets Play Me Once free, weeks before launch, in exchange for an honest review. Spots are limited.
About the author
M.M. Desch brings over three decades as a practicing psychiatrist to The Portland Murders, her psychological-thriller universe. Her debut, Tangled Darkness (Rowan Prose Publishing), was shortlisted for the Chanticleer Clue Awards and named a Readers’ Favorite finalist; the novellas If I Go Quiet and Lethal Loyalty carry the universe forward. Play Me Once is her second full-length novel. She and her wife live in Portland, Oregon. More about M.M. Desch →
For media & podcasters
Interview and review inquiries: mary@marydesch.com · Download the Play Me Once one sheet (PDF)