Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office Homicide Detectives Cat Leigh and Marci Welles struggle to solve the monthly Kalendar Killer murders, which were always committed on national holidays. Five people, beginning with Janice Handera on Mother’s Day, died under brutal circumstances. The crime scenes provide no clues other than the banners proclaiming “Happy ?? Day” in which the victims are wrapped; and the clock is quickly ticking toward Thanksgiving. When one small skin cell, compliments of a woodpecker, offers a ray of hope in solving the case, Cat and Marci follow a trail that leads from West Palm Beach to Seattle, Washington; to Malibu, California; to Niagara Falls, New York; and finally to St. Louis, Missouri before returning them to Florida.

A year later the Detectives are once again in the news but the reasons are very different. Cat Leigh finds herself on the receiving end of rape… her survival nothing less than a miracle. With both her body and soul beaten and battered, her near death experience casts a new light on how she views crimes against women. These changes become obvious during the investigation of a local lifeguard known for using his breast stroke as much out of the water as in the water. With 800 women as potential suspects, Cat and Marci have their work cut out for them. Both Cat's rape and the lifeguard's murder pose intriguing questions. Why did Cat's rapist, who later added torture and murder to his list of crimes, spare her? Is it possible that hundreds of "laid and played" women could have conspired to kill the man who broke their hearts? If they did, how did they find each other and which one actually is responsible for the kiss of death?

THROUGH THICK AND THIN is a crime drama based on real people and real situations. The models for Cat Leigh and Marci Welles are my daughter, Jessica Carbone McKinney, a rape survivor, and Mary Bedwell Bain, her best friend since high school and the PBSO crime scene investigator who helped to capture Jessica’s attacker. 

Available at: https://www.amazon.com/Through-Thick-Thin-Welles-Novels/dp/0692588639

Synopsis:

Silk Suit - Stone Heart continues Donna's tradition of giving her readers big crimes for a small price. Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office Homicide Detectives Cat Leigh and Marcie Welles track a killer intent on killing politicians while they are dining in local restaurants. If they make it through their Caesar salad's, they just might make it through the night. The fact that a radioactive chemical element more commonly found in Russia than the USA is being used gives the crimes an aura of international intrigue. When the actual killer is uncovered, Cat and Marci are reminded that one should never judge a book by its cover... or a person by their seeming lack of intellect.

A short time later, Cat and Marci investigate the murder of one of Palm Beach County's most high-profile organized crime leaders. Sixty-year-old Vincent Colangelo is tall, imposing, with a full head of silver hair and hard facial features dominated by a classic Roman nose. He has a confident air that intimidates even the most self-assured and successful of his associates. His suits, numbering well over 100, are black—the only color he ever wears. Each is a Mariano Rubinacci original made in the elegant waterfront neighborhood of Chiaia in Naples, southern Italy’s tailoring capital. Chiaia is considered to be superior to London’s Savile Row and, since Vincent considers himself superior to everyone in every way, his clothing is a reflection of the man. When Vincent enters a room wearing one of these suits, his body language fairly shouts,  “You can’t touch me.”

While still in his forties, Vincent gained control of one of the most powerful organized crime families on the east coast. For six months of the year, he rules his kingdom from a zen-inspired mansion in Manalapan, Florida where he is a familiar face on the boards of some recognized charities and at fundraisers frequented by the social elite of Palm Beach Island.

Vincent’s wife, Maria, somewhere between 40 and don’t ask, is petite and beyond beautiful. The sight of her from the rear has grown men biting the knuckle of their index fingers with barely concealed passion. From the front, their reaction is an immediate bulge in their trousers that no amount of shifting can hide. She has shoulder length auburn hair that sparks with aurulent lights reflecting off the heavy 18 carat gold jewelry she always wears on her wrists and around her neck. She prefers diamonds the size of moth balls in her ears and baseballs on her fingers. Maria Colangelo is accustomed to the best of everything, and her strong-willed temperament, which is a challenge even for her more strong-willed husband, guarantees that she always gets what she wants.

When Vincent is found dead in the penthouse suite at the Ritz Carlton/Manalapan, Cat and Marci fear it will trigger a crime wave unlike anything that Palm Beach County has ever seen.

Available at: https://tinyurl.com/yhvd8mh9

It had already been a long day…

Shortly after the noon hour, Cat and Marci had been called to the scene of a triple murder in one of Jupiter’s exclusive yachting communities -- Admiral’s Cove. This was no ordinary killing. The perpetrator had attempted to eat his victims’ faces.

The scene outside the expensive five bedroom/five and a half bath waterfront home was something out of a horror movie. The door to one of the four two car garages was up and blood splatters covered the driveway, interior walls and ceiling much like a Jackson Pollack painting. The victims, a husband and wife in their 50s, and a kindly neighbor who had attempted a rescue, lay dead – the savageness of the attack hidden from public view by a long line of police officers standing shoulder to shoulder.

All three had been stabbed multiple times with a screwdriver. When the police arrived in response to a 911 call, they found the killer – 18-year-old Camden Colletti – straddling Steven Delmonico and tearing off pieces of his face with his teeth. Mrs. Delmonico lay nearby, her earlobe with earring still attached was stuck to one of her cheeks. Their neighbor, August Weppler, 62, was coiled into a fetal position against the rear tire of the Delmonico’s Land Rover. The screwdriver that had pierced his heart still held in place by his pectoral muscles.

Neither the efforts of several strong police officers nor the sharp incisors of a police dog had distracted Colletti from his attempt at cannibalism. It took several hits with a powerful Taser to break the hold his jaw had on Steven Delmonico’s neck. Handcuffed but barely subdued, Colletti was taken to the hospital where he told a doctor, “I think I ate something bad,” and proceeded to spit out a hunk of human flesh.

Cat and Marci had followed the ambulance from the Delmonico house to the emergency room at Jupiter Medical Center. When the rear doors opened, Colletti made a mad dash across the parking lot. The many hours, days, weeks and months Cat and Marci had spent training at Tres Doulourex was finally paying off. It took but a few minutes to catch and tackle him… being careful to stay clear of his teeth.

While waiting outside an exam room for an opportunity to interrogate the clearly insane young man, Cat and Marci overheard him tell the doctor that he had missed his noon meal and was hungry. Not intending to sound the least bit funny, Marci remarked to Cat, “I’m never buying lunch meat again.”

#

Narcissus Street was crowded with police cars and emergency vehicles when Cat and Marci double parked nearly eight hours later. If not for the revolving lights on the city’s black and whites and the Sheriff’s Office crime scene van, the darkness would have been complete. Not even the marquee from the nearby Dramaworks Theatre could dispel the feeling of dread that crawled up Cat’s spine and exited at the back of Marci’s neck. They shivered in unison.

The banner over the entrance at the bottom of the dimly lit stairwell depicted the side profile of a woman's heavily mascara-ed eye. Reflected in the pupil was a long-legged female dressed in thigh high leather boots and a barely there crotch-covering tight leather dress. In her hands, long fingernails seductively caressing the handle, she held a whip – a cat o’nine tails to be exact.

Lashes, a members only club, was aptly named and not because beautiful women batted their eyes in a bid for attention. In the shadowy recesses of this subterranean submissive’s paradise, the dark intentions of its clientele were serious business. Secluded booths and tables stood like sentries around the perimeter of the bar and dining room. The walls were decorated with medieval weapons of torture. The upholstery on the chairs and settees, which at first glance appeared to be tiny dots, were actually the letters S&M… the ampersand designed to look like a supplicant begging for mercy.

When Cat and Marci entered the crime scene, they were surprised by the similarities between it and Tres Douloureux. Both the gym and the club looked and felt like a dungeon… dark and damp… the sweet/sour odor of sweat subtle yet unmistakable in the air. The concrete walls and floors, under a black ceiling of exposed beams and pipes, conveyed a feeling of imprisonment, but there was no need for bars on the windows and doors. Those who entered came willingly, eager participates in the games of bondage that offered both pleasure and pain.

In the Tap Room, men and women ate, drank, danced and socialized while sizing up potential partners. Here is where they tapped the person with whom they hoped to spend a few hours of copulation ecstasy and where they chose their Mistress or Master for the night’s escape into forbidden territory.

A waitress with studs in her eyebrows and lips roamed the room like a jaguar in heat taking orders from members thirsty for more than liquor. No one seemed to care that just a few feet away, behind a black curtain emblazoned with the same logo that appeared over the front door, lay a dead man – the skin on his body flayed nearly completely off by means of nine knotted thongs of leather strips.

Across the room, Officer Keith McKinney stood talking to the bartender, a world-weary man in his sixties who understood the value of seeing nothing, saying nothing and hearing nothing. Once the youngest member of the force, McKinney had earned his stripes working with Cat and Marci on a number of heavily publicized murders. His dedication on the Kalendar Killer case had earned him a reputation as a top notch investigator.

Making eye contact with Cat and Marci, he tossed his head to the side as if to demand “Come here!” The ramrod stiff way he held his body was a clear sign that a sex club was not in his comfort zone.

Based on the statements taken from patrons, the evening’s activities had never gotten beyond the tapping stage. When Lashes’ owner Sandefur had not arrived in the Tap Room to welcome guests with his usual punctuality, Clayton Reynolds, Sandefur’s long-time business partner, had gone to the office to look for him. On his way, he passed through the dungeon and found his friend face down in the Branding Room, his perfectly muscled body nothing more than a pile of torn flesh and broken bones floating on a river of red. The bartender admitted that Reynolds’ scream was hard to ignore.

 Available at: https://www.amazon.com/Total-Submission-third-Leigh-Welles-ebook/dp/B08FYZT23J

Private Hell, a semi-autobiographical crime novel, deals with domestic abuse. While written as a work of fiction, the story within the story truthfully depicts the author's life from childhood through her escape from a first marriage that nearly took her life.

Longevity was a birthright in Diana Ciccone’s family. All of the women on her mother’s side lived to be 100 years old. Diana believed her life ran in 25 year cycles. The first 25 years were hell on earth. A dysfunctional childhood and an abusive first marriage had left her physically and emotionally scarred. Then, quite by chance, she met the man who would give her a chance for real happiness, and the next 25 years were “… heavenly.” Now, 16 years into the third quarter of her life, she found herself back at the gates of hell… and Satan looked a lot like her ex-husband. She was beginning to wonder if what she called life was actually death and she just didn’t know it. With Satan’s domain threatening to become her permanent place of residence, drastic measures were required. Diana hired high-priced attorney Claudia Allerd and private investigator Angus Caruthers in the hope they could keep her from falling into the pit of eternal flames. With their help, she discovered that the evil one knows is surprisingly different from the evil they don’t know. She also learned that heaven and hell are the same place. Sometimes people are in one. Sometimes they are in the other. No one leaves this plane of existence without having visited both.

Available at: https://www.amazon.com/Private-Hell-Sometimes-heaven-place-ebook/dp/B01GVQD4YK

Available at: https://tinyurl.com/x5h2as5s

Bread and Bullets is the true story of how a Gotti hit man turned a simple baker into a killer and how a prosecutor on a quest for notoriety and higher conviction rates railroaded that baker into an unjust conviction for manslaughter in a clear case of self-defense.

In 2003, Rosario Liotta killed a mob associate in self-defense during an attempted shake down. The killing took place shortly before the Stand Your Ground laws went into effect in Florida. As a result, at trial in 2005 he was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 15 years in prison. In time, the authorities learned that the associate was the hit man who had murdered Miami Subs founder and SunCruz Casino Lines mogul, Gus Boulis. Because of the shooting, Rosario was dragged into that case.

Now a free man, Rosario is telling his story - the same story he told throughout his trial - complete with all the details the prosecution never allowed the jury to hear.

If you think you are tough enough to survive prison, think again. Nothing you have seen or heard is remotely close to the horrors of incarceration, especially when you are jailed for a crime you did not commit.

Available at: https://tinyurl.com/mrx62muc

Lambie and Me is more than a story about a little boy and his best friend. It is a morality tale… one that weaves the importance of good character into the narrative. The story subtly touches on the importance of family and speaks to adults and children alike about the importance of loyalty, kindness, empathy, and friendship.

Children will learn the meaning of unconditional love. Lambie and Me opens the door for discussion even with the youngest of children and leaves a lasting impression as children grow into adulthood.     

Available at: https://tinyurl.com/55euu6my