This series of Mystery/Thriller fiction books follows Detective Kass Minor and FBI Agent Robert Matthews as they work to solve crimes in and around the Springfield, Missouri, region of the United States.
Book 1-The Farm
Have you ever wondered how an ordinary person could know and interact with a serial killer and not know it until it was too late? The Farm, book one in The Murder in the Heartland series, centers on the disappearance of Kelsey Learner, a seemingly ordinary midwestern single mom. When Kelsey goes missing, no one even notices for almost two days. Detectives Kass Minor and Mitch Leet zero in on two suspects, Joe Learner, Kelsey’s ex-husband, and Helen Hann, Kelsey’s boss’s wife. Joe has little contact with Kelsey or their daughter Claire and seems unconcerned when he finds out Kelsey is missing. Detectives quickly learn that Joe is not lying to them. While looking into Kelsey’s last known movements, Minor and Leet realize that Helen Hann has developed an unhealthy obsession with her. These two suspects may hold the key to finding Kelsey, but is the obvious always the right answer?
Parallel to the investigation into Kelsey’s disappearance, a pair of serial killers are murdering in the area for what they perceive to be a higher good. Police have yet to connect their victims and, in some cases, even know they are missing. Is Kelsey their latest victim, or is it a coincidence that a serial killer couple is on the loose and Kelsey has vanished?
Book 2- Dismantling the Farm
FBI Agent Robert Matthews came from a long line of civil servants, but it was his grandfather’s love of a 1930s movie about the FBI that had made being an agent Robert’s dream. He had visions of car chases, gun fights, and media releases that featured his name. Instead, he got assigned to the Springfield, Missouri field office, where he spent his days doing paperwork, going out on investigative interviews, testifying in court, or practicing firearms use and defensive tactics. When he is assigned to look into the disappearance of a young man as a favor to a friend of the Assistant Director of the FBI, no one could have predicted how big the case would be.
Teams of serial killers are not the norm, and husband-and-wife teams are even more rare. Agent Matthews’ hunch and investigation may lead to stopping the serial killers for good, but will it help his friend Detective Kass Minor to close her long-cold case of the disappearance of Kelsey Learner? Will ending the serial killers’ madness bring closure for Kelsey’s daughter Claire, or is it just another wrong direction for Detectives Minor and Leet to take the baffling case?
Book 3-Remembering the Farm
The third book in the Secrets in the Heartland series brings the reader back to answer some of their lingering questions. When two boys go missing in Springfield, Detective Kass Minor must move fast to try to bring them home safely. Working with a new partner who is no Mitch Leet, she has no idea what this investigation will reveal.
The female serial killer has changed her name and relocated to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, but can she put her killing ways behind her, or is a psychopath unable to change? Especially when she hates loose ends. Agent Robert Matthews may not know where she is, but he is sure that wherever it is, people are dying by her hand.
Is Kelsey Learner still alive, or did she perish at the hands of the serial killers? Will learning the truth help Claire to move forward in her life?
