Rocky Start

"Rose Malone's landlord and employer has just died and now she has no idea if she has a job or if she and her daughter, Poppy, have a place to live, and that's on top of the arrest warrant that's been out for her for nineteen years. Then a stranger shows up and tries to throw her out. It just isn’t the week to do that. She smacks him with a reproduction of the Maltese Falcon and then somebody grabs him and throws him into the street. Max Reddy just wants his boots. He’s walking the Appalachian trail with his dog, Maggs, trying to leave behind a life as an elite covert operative, and stopping in Rocky Start to pick up supplies, when he sees a feisty middle-aged woman get backhanded by a guy in a suit. Max throws the jerk into the street and continues on his way, determined to get his boots and get out of town, even if Feisty was pretty cute. He’s been alone on the trail a long time. Some trees are looking good to him. Rose needs to know what’s going on, so she follows Max to the post office, no ulterior motive, honest. Except to pick his pocket to find out who he is, then he can go. But by nightfall, she’s invited him under her roof for her own protection since they're dealing with a town full of retired spies, including a suspicious sheriff, a sly-eyed moocher, a knife-wielding bakery owner, a stranger who looks like she drinks the blood of the damned, a conniving teenager, and a dog who's decided she's done with the Appalachian Trail. And Max is starting to think his dog is right. Rocky Start: This could be the start of something dangerous." -- Amazon.