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Kill to Keep by Elena Taylor

Book Description + Live Events + a Giveaway + Author Pet Corner

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Kill to Keep

A female sheriff races against time to solve a murder at a carnival that puts her whole town at risk. Thrilling, romantic, and full of suspense!

Sheriff Bet Rivers’ inspection of the carnival grounds should have been routine. Murder is certainly the last thing on anyone’s mind. Then comes the sound of a gunshot. And a dead body with no signs of trauma, no witnesses and no obvious motive for the killing.

But solving the unexplained death is only part of the challenge. Bet is still grappling with her on-off relationship with town owner Rob Collier, while dealing with her feelings about her late father, the beloved town sheriff she had to replace.

As Bet launches her homicide investigation, she soon discovers the carnival is a place of whispers, rumours, resentments and lie after lie. And as the stakes build, it quickly becomes clear that protecting a deadly secret is something that someone is willing to kill to keep.

Fans of Julia Keller and Sheena Kamal will love this riveting suspense.

To purchase your copy of Kill to Keep, click any of the following links: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Bookshop.org & Target

Praise for Kill to Keep

“Taylor’s entertaining third procedural featuring Washington State sheriff Elizabeth “Bet” Rivers (after A Cold, Cold World) gives the investigator a baffling mystery to solve at a fairground in the “tiny town” of Collier … Fans of C.J. Box will appreciate this gritty, poignant regional noir.”

—Publishers Weekly

“In her latest mystery, Taylor delivers a thrilling and atmospheric whodunit.” —Jeff Ayres

Upcoming Events

Third Place Books, Lake Forest Park

Lake Forest Park
17171 Bothell Way NE Ste A101
Lake Forest Park, WA 98155

Paper Boat Booksellers

4522 California Ave SW

Seattle, WA 98116

206-743-8283

Pages and Paragraphs

Book Signing, July 18 from noon-2pm

21801 E Indiana Ave, Suite 102
Liberty Lake, WA 99010

(509)509-3786

BookFolk Literary Festival

Live Appearance at 1pm and Book Signing

Quincy Square

253 4th St, Bremerton, Washington

5-Book Giveaway!

Kill to Keep Author Elena Taylor

Hi all!

You see my “professional” headshot with my other blog posts, so I thought I’d share something a little more personal to celebrate the launch of my 7th novel.

This is my youngest horse, Noble, who just got back to Paradise after 60 days of colt starting. He’s what we call a reactive horse, with a lot of anxiety. He came a long way working with a talented trainer, but he’s also going to be a longterm project! I love him so much. He’s a giant teddy bear of a horse that likes to be with people. He’s just also afraid of basically everything else. This despite the fact he’s really, really big.

When I’m not blogging about authors, penning my latest novel, or working with writers on their works in progress, I can usually be found hanging out with equines, cats, and dogs. I find their presence makes everything better.

We integrated Noble into the herd on Sunday. It’s always a little unsettling to bring a new equine into a group, because they are huge animals with a lot of ideas about who is top dog. It’s a hierarchical system, that works well in the wild, but can get dicey in a closed system. Luckily for me, my older horse Jasper is a benign dictator. He’s in charge, but he’s never mean about it. Boone the giant mule is low on the totem pole, so that means he’s not aggressive with other equines. Noble (as I suspected) appears thrilled just to be out with friends. There was a little bit of squealing, kicking, and racing around, but they settled in to an adorable unit fairly quickly.

Fingers crossed it stays that way!

If you aren’t already following me on social media, I’d love to connect! You can anticipate lots of animal pictures!

Here’s the links: Instagram, Facebook, and X

Animal Pet Corner!

Introducing the rest of the crew! These are the indoor family members. Polar is the old man of the group. Schweitzer is just 7 months old, but already almost 70 pounds. We anticipate at least a 100 pound doggo.

Coal Train has one meow for everything. I call him, Little Kitty One Note. Cocoa is the shy one in the group, but she’s very good at keeping the dogs in line.

Juni-purr showed up in my pasture a little over a year ago, launching herself into my arms out of the dark. She’s very happy to be an indoor cat now! Wyatt loves to sleep upside down. He and Juni-purr can often be found cuddled up together.

I feel very lucky to get to live with all these amazing animals.

Elena Hartwell | Elena Taylor