Blind Conviction

(Book 1 of the Kara Cinnamon Mystery Series)

The picturesque landscape of Monterey, California hasn’t been serene enough to keep Kara Cinnamon’s anticipation at bay. At last her wait is ending—special agent training is weeks away. Except the early arrival of the new apprentice, Jake Nisco, at her father’s boatyard capsizes her expectations. Skeptical of his easygoing manner, she soon discovers his instinctive touch goes beyond the sleek wooden vessels that have made Cinnamon Marine world-renowned. Disarming attraction leads to temptation, yet the haunting echo from her childhood—being kidnapped by her mother until the Bureau intervened—commands her focus and destined career.

Jake knew charting a course to study under the country's most illustrious shipwright would be a hard feat. Having championed the opportunity, he is leveled when his eagerness to please Nico conflicts with intrinsic, shadowy interludes with his daughter. Desire for Kara takes shape as easily as the wood under Jake’s hands, yet time won’t bend for them to explore what lies beneath. Embarking on their separate pursuits, he intuits the real wait has just begun.

Half Italian, half Greek, whole-heartedly a believer in fate, Nico Cinnamon utilized tradition, hard work, and fierce love to raise his daughter and his boatyard to a pinnacle of excellence. Though he looks upon Kara’s achievements with pride and Jake’s potential with keen interest, Nico is powerless to protect either from the past. Or those who may wish them harm.

Ricardo Vega was still rising within the fledging Mexican drug trade when he and Kara’s mother had been lovers. Now the capo of the Tijuana cartel, Vega casts his interest towards her daughter as a coveted prize, unknowing Kara has unfinished business of her own.

As an agent in Miami, it doesn’t take long for Kara's path to juxtapose Vega’s, nor for the passion between her and Jake to crest when reunited. Yet their relationship is cast aside when Vega's vast trafficking net drags her undercover to save the innocent. Defeat frays her belief in the system, while the man who moored her heart remains where she cannot be—home. Framed by Vega’s murders and mayhem, those she holds most dear fall under Bureau scrutiny, sending Kara’s conviction in justice, duty, and her own instincts toppling. Torn down, she must blindly trust that her greatest strength lies in a discounted truth as she races to uncover the secrets in Vega’s cartel before time runs out.

McWay Falls at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park was an inspiring stop on my research trip and was included in a chapter of the manuscript.