I THINK I WAS MURDERED

After losing her husband, grandmother, and job in quick succession, a young woman strives to uncover a criminal conspiracy while falling back in love with her hometown and its people.

A year after her husband, Jason, died in an accident, attorney Katrina Foster arrives at Talk, Inc., the Silicon Valley company where she’s employed, to find the FBI raiding the premises. David Liang, the chief executive, is under investigation for embezzlement and has apparently fled the country, leaving Liv Tompkins, his pregnant girlfriend—who’s also the company’s chief technology officer, and Katrina’s friend—behind. On the same day, Katrina’s beloved grandmother dies of a heart attack. Shattered by upheaval and loss, Katrina travels home to North Haven, California for the funeral, where she learns that she’s inherited her grandmother’s restaurant. With a lead on a new job back in Silicon Valley, she offers to sell the business to handsome restaurateur Seb Wallace, a local man with a tragic past who has become a major success. Katrina also has a secret: Liv loaded a prototype of Talk’s AI software onto her phone after Jason’s death, and she often speaks to the chatbot of her dead husband for comfort. She starts asking him more questions about the night he died, and he finally says, “I think I was murdered.” Returning to the homey comfort of North Haven, Katrina vows to uncover the truth behind Jason’s death, which involves a mysterious Satoshi egg that contains the code to $30 million worth of Bitcoin, a possible international assassin, and a potential mole in the FBI. She’s helped by her family, Liv, and Seb, with whom she falls deeper and deeper into attraction. It’s a high-octane thriller with the grounding touches of Katrina’s Norwegian heritage, the hygge of North Haven, and a very sweet romance between two likable, vulnerable people.

Romantic suspense comfort food—just like waffles with cloudberry cream.