The Stanton Falls Mysteries: Promotion to Peril follows the newly appointed Police Chief and his team as they navigate the murky waters of corruption and injustice. Why did you choose to tell this book as three interconnected short stories rather than a single continuous mystery?

I chose three short stories because the trouble in Stanton Falls doesn’t show up all at once. It comes in pieces. Each story lets the new Police Chief face a different problem, and together they show how the corruption connects underneath it all. Breaking it up kept the pace tight and let me focus on one challenge at a time while still building the bigger mystery.

What drew you to exploring betrayal from inside the system?

Betrayal inside the police force hits harder than anything coming from outside. When the people who are supposed to protect and serve the town become part of the problem, it changes everything. It forces the Chief to question who he can trust and how deep the damage goes. That kind of betrayal affects the whole community, and that’s why I wanted to explore it.

What aspects of small-town life make it effective for exploring secrets and corruption?

Small towns are perfect for stories about secrets because everyone knows everyone, or thinks they do. People have long memories, old grudges, and close ties that make problems harder to spot and harder to fix. When something goes wrong in a place that close‑knit, it feels personal. Secrets spread quietly, loyalties get messy, and corruption can hide in plain sight.

Can you tell us more about what’s in store for Stanton Falls and the direction of the third book?

The third book, Undercurrents of Betrayal, came out last year. I held off on releasing Promotion to Peril for a while because the cover wasn’t finished, but once that was taken care of, the book was ready. This story takes Stanton Falls in a new direction with a fresh storyline. I didn’t want to repeat the same conflict fromPromotion to Peril. I wanted to show how the town moves forward and how new problems can rise up even after old ones are settled. There are new characters, new challenges, and a different kind of trouble working its way into the town. It opens the door to the next phase of Stanton Falls and shows that the town still has plenty of secrets left to uncover.

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