SUNBURNED

SUNBURNED takes us to the glittering island of St. Barth's and the mansions and yachts of the super-rich as a private investigator sets out to unmask a blackmailer and finds herself at the center of a murder investigation on the high seas.

Audrey Collet has moved on from her checkered past as a hacker and on-again, off-again girlfriend to the charming but amoral Tyson Dale. Now she's a mother of two and a successful "discovery agent" who helps lawyers ferret out information before trials. She doesn't regret ending things with Tyson ten years ago, not even now that his water desalination company has made him a billionaire. But when Tyson calls with a job for her, Audrey finds that she can't refuse. He's being blackmailed by someone in his inner circle, and he needs Audrey to figure out who it is. And her own neck is on the line as well, because the blackmailer seems to know the long-buried dark secret that she and Tyson share. Reluctantly, she jets off to the island estate where he's hosting all of his closest associates, each of whom has something against him and a reason to wish him ill. But when a diving trip for Tyson's birthday turns his yacht into a floating crime scene, Audrey realizes that one of the ten people now trapped at sea with her isn't just a blackmailerthey're a murderer. It could be any of them: Tyson's model wife, who feels stifled in their marriage; her loyal best friend, who longs to free her; the elder brother who's always been in his shadow; the celebrity business partner who wants out of their deal. Whoever it is, Audrey needs to find them fast, or else she may very well be their next target. Fast-paced and relentlessly intense, SUNBURNED is a classic locked-room mystery set in a cutthroat and glamorous world. Fans of "rich people behaving badly" stories like THE GUEST LIST by Lucy Foley, THE CLUB by Ellery Lloyd, and The White Lotus will be all in on Audrey's high-stakes investigation. This is a perfectly sultry, suspenseful vacation read that you won't want to put down. Katherine Wood is a native of Mississippi and a graduate of the University of Southern California. She is the author of LADYKILLER (Bantam, July 2024).