title: The Kissing Number
author: Furley, Louise
description: Sort of a Cinderella meets a cop with his own tainted past who thinks she is a serial killer. Coli Cassidy has had a very hard life. But she has inherited an old Victorian mansion in Texas, and plans to turn it into a Bed & Breakfast Inn and start a new life. Unfortunately, her juvenile prison term throws hateful blocks in her way, and menace stalks her every step. Sheriff Brogan Dillon is haunted by a devastating incident that got him kicked out of the military. Brogan and Coli are highly attracted to one another, however, a series of murders occur in town, and evidence points to Coli as the main suspect. Brogan reluctantly shelves his burning desire for Coli while he investigates the murders. While Brogan searches for the killer, or killers, FBI Agent Jackson Navarro comes to town with his gun-powder sniffing dog, Pompeii to hunt for weapon traffickers traced from Singapore. The two lawmen work together to determine if the local killings and the gun smuggling are tied together. Coli's goofy, yet mysterious dog, Douggie, and Brogan's yawn, seemingly bored cat, Felipé, stick their paws in when deadly danger is about to befall Coli, can they thwart the inevitable? Intrigue, Coli's heinous family, and murder endeavor to wedge this couple apart, yet they pull each other up out of the darkness of their despairing pasts and battle against all odds for their happily ever after.