No Good Deed
The first time Sonora saw the farm, it was dusk, and there were horses running in the paddocks. It did not seem the kind of place where a young girl of fifteen could saddle up a horse for an afternoon ride, and never come back.
Except on that afternoon, the owner, Donna Delaney, was out; the veterinarian from the farm next door heard nothing; and the girl's father, a single parent, was at work.
Joelle Chauncey did not disappear without a trace - she left blood, and a discarded riding boot.
Tire tracks from a horse trailer indicate both Joelle and the mare she was riding were taken together.
Homicide cop Sonora Blair, a single parent herself, is called in from downtown Cincinnati to find a motive for the child's abduction.
Just hours later, Donna Delaney is attacked. Delaney has a bad reputation among horse people, and as Sonora delves further, she discovers some dirty dealings with a wealthier farm nearby, making her wonder: who was the actual target - the girl or the horse?
Delaney's attack and Joelle's disappearance are only the beginning. As events escalate at the riding stable, Sonora detects an eerie and unsettling presence, a killer wrapped in layers of internal conflict, who will lead her sown a bizarre path of good and evil and dark compulsions, proving fear can be the most dangerous enemy of all
‘Cleverly crafted crime story from an exciting new writer.’ Daily Mail on Flashpoint

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Eyeshot
See Review by Phyllis Davis
See Review by Val McDermid
Cincinnati homicide detective Sonora Blair, who first appeared in the bestseller Flashpoint, returns to investigate the brutal murder of a woman who eight years before witnessed the local DA's drowning of his pregnant wife.
Young mother of two Julia Winchell witnessed a murder before she died. Eight years before she died. A murder that is unsolved but not forgotten. A murder where the body disappeared, and no one believed her story.
When Julia returns to Cincinnati she recognises the killer on the front page of the local paper. He's a prominent and popular District Attorney.
Then Julia disappears. Shortly afterwards her severed leg is found along the interstate highway in Kentucky. A mother of two herself, Detective Sonora Blair is determined to find out what happened to Julia Winchell - and to bring her killer to justice.
'Suspenseful and psychologically sound, with a fierce, frazzled quality to the writing which gives it edge and credibility. With her second novel, Hightower gives notice she's here to stay. Astonishingly good' Philip Oakes in the Literary Review
'Hightower has invented a heroine who is both flawed and likeable, and she knows how to keep the psychological pressure turned up high' Sunday Telegraph
'What gives it depth and resonance is the way Hightower counterpoints the murder plot with the details of Sonora's daily life in homicide, from the annoyance of having to share the station's women's room with male cops to discussions among women about how to tell if the man they're seeing is married' Publishers Weekly
'The unconfident but courageous Sonora is a lively and sympathetic addition to the ranks of fictional female coppery' Marcel Berlins, The Times
"Cleverly crafted crime story from and exciting new writer" Daily Mail
"One To Watch" Mike Ripley, Daily Telegraph

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Flashpoint
See Review by Phyllis Davis
Flashpoint, Lynn S. Hightower's first novel in the UK, has been chosen for the prestigious W.H.Smith Fresh Talent promotion in February - March 1996. It is a tale of the hunt for a woman stalker and serial killer and of her pursuer, Homicide Detective Sonora Blair of the Cincinnati Police Department.
'Cleverly crafted crime story from an exciting new writer...frightening ...gutsy' Daily Mail
'Good frissons of psychological terror, interspersed with convincing violence; and unconfident but courageous Sonora is a lively and sympathetic addition to the ranks of fictional female coppery' Marcel Berlins, The Times
'A Powerfully original book with a female detective who is fully characterised, warts and all, rather than just an anthology of attitudes. Like all the best thrillers, Flashpoint leaves you uneasily aware of shadows, especially those that start at your own feet' Reginald Hill
'Miraculously fresh and harrowing' Kirkus Reviews
"Highly effective shocker - Serious running into criminal psychology that comes up with a dark haul of spoiled lives and dangerous people. A pindown read, outstanding." Philip Oakes, Literary Review
"Her pace is brisk, her characters well drawn and credibly flawed and her plotting diabolically intriguing from start to finish." Publishers Weekly

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About The Author
Lynn S. Hightower was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee and lived in Georgia and Virginia as a child before moving to Lexington, Kentucky where she now lives. At school she read voraciously; especially mystery writers and later science fiction. In 1977 she graduated in journalism from the University of Kentucky where she enrolled in creative writing classes. Her tutor there taught her a no-nonsense approach to writing advising her to just sit down and do her own work, advice which she has found invaluable.
For a while Hightower wrote television commercials then went back to college to study for a master's degree in business administration, but towards the end of the course she realised that the jobs she was being interviewed for were not at all what she wanted to do - she wanted to write. Encouraged by her family, that is exactly what she did. And the results have been well worth it - Flashpoint has become a runaway bestseller, Eyeshot is published in paperback in February 1997, and Lynn is currently working on a third book to feature homicide detective Sonora Blair.
Lynn S. Hightower now works full-time writing fiction. She likes canoeing, horse-riding, is witty after two glasses of wine, and confesses to being unable to resist M&Ms. She shares her office with a Golden Retriever named Griffin.
Hightower's Writing is pacy, sympathetic, genuine. To make her work realistic and up-to-date she did a lot of research with the police, in particular with homicide investigators and crime scene specialists in Cincinnati and with police detectives and private investigators in Kentucky, sometimes accompanying them as an observer, and even attending a post mortem by the state medical examiner so that she would know exactly what she was writing about.
Sonora is a new heroine for the Nineties, widowed with two kids, a three-legged dog and an ulcer and fighting to balance the brutality of the day-job and the demands of her family she is also gutsy, intelligent, sensitive.
On Flashpoint
"I wanted to write about a female serial killer and to buck the trend where victims are white men who deserved to die. I wanted male victims who are good guys and didn't deserve to be killed,"
On Writing
"My goal is always to write a riveting, compelling, fast-moving read that entertains. I try to write realistically - I do a lot of research and I try to make my story fit the facts, rather than the other way around. I don't feel that I have the right to expect people to indulge me by reading something that they don't enjoy. I'm happy if someone gives me three sentences to pique their- interest; if I haven't got you in three, then toss my book aside with my blessings"
"I write to tell myself stories I would like to be told. I started my first novel when I was ten years old - writing is simply something which I have always done. I started writing every day thirteen years ago."

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Bibliography

No Good Deed (Hodder & Stoughton) (1998) 16 Apr 98 (Sonora Blair)

Eyeshot (Hodder & Stoughton) (1997) (Sonora Blair)

Flashpoint (Hodder & Stoughton) (1996) (Sonora Blair)

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