Deuce Mora (Volumes 4–5)

Three gripping thrillers featuring hard-hitting reporter Deuce Mora –and a twisty, pulse-pounding Watergate-type cover-up of a massive plane crashA Jean Heller read guarantees an intricate, action-packed mystery. Here are three of her best: a locked-room murder puzzle embedded in a contemporary mob mystery, an international crime ring embedded in corrupt government, and a government cover-up that loops and careens to a shocking climax.Fiery, tough, athletic, and a dirty fighter when she has to be, journalist Deuce Mora tends to lean more heavily on her "investigative reporter" profile than her “lead columnist” title strictly requires. Rather than shying away from fights, she tends to pick them. Cases in point: Ill Wind and Black Marsh. She didn’t have to go there. But she always does.Ill WindVeteran reporter Deuce Mora is awakened in the pre-dawn hours and called to the scene of a gruesome hanging to identify the body of a dear friend, an FBI agent on the verge of taking down one of Chicago's biggest Mob operations. Deuce knows it's murder, but the authorities have no choice but to call it a suicide - the death scene was triple-locked from the inside.Black MarshDeuce discovers a whole new dimension of danger when she wakes up in a swamp next to a plane crash, with no memory of how she got there – and in no shape to argue with the mysterious swamp hermit who claims he needs to hide her from the search helicopters circling above. He’s the only help that’s coming, since the forces of what passes for law and order in remote Joe Pye County are led by a sadistic sheriff steeped in the corruption Deuce came to investigate.Maximum ImpactThree hundred thirty-three fatalities and no survivors. Investigating the deadliest accident in U.S. aviation history in which a new plane's engine disintegrated, reporter Steve Pace uncovers a Watergate-type cover-up involving the government and industrial leaders.Note: The character of journalist Steve Pace first appears in his own standalone novel, Maximum Impact, the third volume in this boxed set. Since the character is more fully developed in Maximum Impact and some events of Maximum Impact are referenced in Ill Wind, some readers may wish to start with Maximum Impact and circle back to Ill Wind.