Run & Gun

Table of Contents

Praise for Diana Deverell’s thrillers and mysteries

BITCH OUT OF HELL, the new political thriller featuring Bella Hinton

“Helluva read! I really enjoyed this. I hope there are more books coming. The characters are intriguing, Bella is intelligent and sassy, and the plot is entertaining.” (sss reader review)

“Diana Deverell’s newest book could be a story on the six o’clock news - the outsourcing of America’s military functions, shady corporate dealings, the suspicious death of a whistleblowing board member, and a special prosecutor’s investigation.” (iBooks reader review)

The Casey Collins international thriller series

“Chilling suspense and heated passion—A brilliant debut.” (Barbara Parker, Edgar-finalist author of Suspicion of Innocence)

"Deverell's solid second Casey Collins novel [has] engaging narrative, gripping mystery, and wily plot twists.” (Publishers Weekly)

“Diana Deverell has once again crafted a tale that makes you pray it’s fiction.” (S.E. Warwick, mystery reviewer)

A Macavity Award finalist acclaimed for her “sharp story telling” (Publishers Weekly), in China Box (2016) Diana Deverell brings her all-too-human heroine Casey Collins back to the US and into action as “an intricate chess match of espionage, international wheeling-dealing, and love plays out in Washington and Silicon Valley.” (Reader review)

The Nora Dockson legal thriller series

“A great character, a great series—I highly recommend it to people.” (Stephen Campbell, CrimeFiction.FM)

Help Me Nora is “a compelling gritty novel. I could not put it down and found the legal background fascinating.” (Goodreads review)

“Deverell has a gift that grabs the reader so one cares about what happens to every character in the story. Once one starts Nora's clear sighted and brilliant pursuit of justice it's hard to put the book down!” (reader review)

“The series is great; it's got the theme of the hard scrabble up-from-poverty Nora doing her battle of wits against a scheming, social-climbing assistant attorney general, laced with tons of good detective work.” ( reader review)

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An excerpt from “Latin Groove”

Back in Budapest training foreign cops at the International Law Enforcement Academy, FBI Special Agent Dawna Shepherd had staged a dozen mock bank robberies. On this quiet Monday morning in her hometown of Amity, Texas—at a branch inside Walmart, no less—she was witnessing her first real one. And she couldn’t do one thing to stop it.

A minute earlier, her withdrawal slip dangling from her hand, she’d been idling at the WAIT HERE sign behind a strawberry blonde whose silky hair fell straight to the center of her back. From six feet away, she read the petite dark-haired teller’s name tag. HI! I’M CARMEN.

The blonde stepped forward and Carmen’s face blossomed into a cheery smile. The customer used her left hand to slide a money bag and her slip of paper across the counter.

A quickly smothered gasp sharpened Dawna’s attention. She watched the young teller’s expression change to wide eyed alarm. A second later, Carmen’s face had gone blank. Pecos River National Bank was big on customer service. Carmen wouldn’t provoke the robber.

Dawna sized up the blonde. Five feet tall, fifteen inches shorter than she was. Probably weighed fifty pounds less. She’d have no problem manhandling the woman into submission.

Except that this bad girl had not locked her personal weapon in the glove compartment of a motor vehicle parked outside. No, the robber’s right hand was resting in the pocket of her purple windbreaker.

Dawna saw the outline of a fist curved around what was likely a pistol grip. The bulge at the pocket bottom was where she’d expect the barrel to end. Pressure on the fabric signaled a piece weightier than a squirt gun.

Carmen filled and zipped the cash bag. She nudged it across the counter.

Dawna pretended to study her withdrawal slip and edged right to get a better view of the robber.

She turned and Dawna registered the tiny mole below the woman’s lower lip. She strode out into the Walmart lobby and made a sharp left.

Dawna shoved up to the window, flashed her shield at Carmen, and slapped her name imprinted withdrawal slip on the counter.

“Call 911,” she ordered the scared girl in a harsh whisper. “Tell ’em she’s armed and I’m in pursuit.”