Branson county sheriff Hank Worth struggles to uncover the truth behind a fatal car crash in this absorbing mystery. Hank Worth thinks he’s performed a good deed when he pulls over the car of six teens caught speeding on a Saturday night and lets them off with a warning and instructions to go home. When he responds to an urgent call minutes later, he realises he made a fatal error of judgement – every teen is dead. Struggling to come to terms with his role in the crash, Hank begins to suspect foul play. While notifying the parents of the children involved, his suspicions grow when an unidentified body is discovered in one of their homes and a teenage girl is found after apparently attempting to commit suicide. Hank believes the incidents are connected, but those around him disagree. Is Hank right, or is his guilt making him search for answers where there are none?

Family secrets and internal police politics cause trouble for Sheriff Hank Worth and his Chief Deputy Sheila Turley in this compelling mystery. Hank Worth has always been committed to his job as Branson sheriff, so getting him to take a break is difficult. But to everyone's surprise he agrees to take time off after a grueling case and visit a friend in Columbia, Missouri, leaving Chief Deputy Sheila Turley in charge. She quickly launches reforms that create an uproar, and things deteriorate even further when an elderly man is found brutally murdered in his home. As Sheila struggles for control of the investigation and her insubordinate deputies, Hank is not relaxing as promised. His Aunt Fin is worried her husband is responsible for the disappearance of one of his employees, and Hank agrees to investigate. The search for the missing woman leads to a tangle of deceit that Hank is determined to unravel . . . no matter the impact on his family.

Fans of Steven F. Havill's Posadas County and Lisa Regan's Josie Quinn series will enjoy this fascinating and complex story set in small-town Missouri. "An outstanding police procedural that plunges readers into a community’s nightmare. Readers of Steven F. Havill and Bill Crider will appreciate the novel’s focus on small-town life and a local police force" Library Journal Starred Review Branson Sheriff Hank Worth is one of the first on the scene of a mass casualty incident - a local fireworks warehouse has exploded, killing everyone inside. As over a dozen victims are pulled from the smoldering ruins, the painstaking identification process begins. Chief Deputy Sheila Turley returns early from medical leave to assist in the office, while Hank delves deeper into the increasingly complicated situation at the morgue. He discovers that the previous forensic pathologist was hasty at best and negligent at worst. What starts as an offhand request to look into the errors turns into a discovery that shakes Hank's world off its axis . . . With Hank secretly investigating his discovery at the morgue, his short-handed team is stretched to the brink as it investigates the cause of the explosion. Then a shocking revelation leaves Sheila and her fellow deputies scrambling for answers to an unexpected crime. Just what happened in the warehouse in the moments before the blast? Can they unravel the mysteries in time to save Branson from yet more heartbreak? And can Hank, adrift and alone, figure out what happened before it destroys everything he holds dear?

Fans of Steven F. Havill’s Posadas County and Lisa Regan’s Josie Quinn series will enjoy this fascinating and complex story set in small-town Missouri. "Balances well-developed characters and dry humor with a solid police procedural" - Library Journal Starred Review of Dangerous Consequences When a hiker stumbles from the woods raving about a dead man, Sheriff Hank Worth launches a search. Near the infamous landmark of Murder Rocks – a Civil War era hideout for ambushers who robbed and killed passing travelers – they unearth two bodies and a skeleton. Local legend says there’s caches of stolen gold buried in the area. And – thanks to some recent nationwide publicity – the Ozark backwoods are now swarming with out-of-town treasure hunters, who have little concern for Hank’s murder investigation. With the clock ticking, Hank must identify the victims . . . and the killer. But could the new pursuit of long-lost plunder really have led to multiple deaths? Meanwhile, secrets uncovered in Hank’s personal life are taking a toll. He and his wife are trying to bridge the painful gap that’s widening daily. As it threatens to split them apart, Hank doesn’t know what’s tougher, murder or marriage. With both taking everything he has, all he does know is that old sins throw long shadows . . .

Sheriff Hank Worth struggles to keep his team together and solve a brutal murder of a former antagonist in this captivating mystery. "Balances well-developed characters and dry humor with a solid police procedural"- Library Journal Starred Review Elderly tourists visiting Branson, Missouri for a fun time are instead becoming so sick and disoriented they end up in the ER with Dr Maggie McCleary. She asks the sheriff to investigate and, because he happens to be her husband, Hank Worth readily agrees. When the tour operator denies responsibility, Hank digs deeper leaving Chief Deputy Sheila Turley to handle a simmering revolt within the ranks. Their policy to eliminate overtime pay has infuriated many long-time deputies. Those fired for insubordination have filed a lawsuit, while those still there sabotage Sheila at every turn. With pressure mounting, they're called to a hit-and-run accident. But the victim's injuries haven't been caused by a car . . . she's been beaten to death and dumped by the side of the road. And she was someone they knew. Will the victim's aggressive business dealings come to haunt them all? And can Hank and Sheila save their department from destruction?

When the tourist showboat The Branson Beauty runs aground on an Ozark lake, new sheriff Hank Worth is responsible for getting all the passengers off safely, which he does--all save one. He finds a murder victim in the captain's dining room, a beloved local athlete who wasn't even supposed to be on the boat. Now Hank must unravel her movements and hunt down her killer while navigating the cutthroat politics and dark secrets of the small town that he now calls home. In her first Sheriff Hank Worth mystery, Claire Booth weaves together a riveting crime novel with her signature combination of empathy and wit.

The Branson Beauty, an old showboat, has crashed in the waters of an Ozark mountain lake just outside the popular tourist destination of Branson, Missouri. More than one hundred people are trapped aboard. Hank Worth is still settling into his new role as county sheriff, and when he responds to the emergency call, he knows he’s in for a long winter day of helping elderly people into rafts and bringing them ashore. He realizes that he’ll face anxiety, arguments, and extra costs for emergency equipment that will stretch the county’s already thin budget to the breaking point. But he is absolutely not expecting to discover high school track star Mandy Bryson’s body locked inside the Captain’s private dining room. Suddenly, Hank finds himself embroiled in a murder investigation, with the county commissioner breathing down his neck and the threat of an election year ahead of him. And as he wades deeper into the investigation, Hank starts to realize he’s up against a web of small town secrets much darker and more tangled than he could have ever imagined. In her captivating debut novel, Claire Booth has created a broad cast of wonderfully compelling characters, and she perfectly blends humor with the emotional drama and heartache of a murder investigation.

Describes how stockbroker Taylor Helzer, his brother Justin, and a malleable girl named Dawn formed an alliance, stole money from unsuspecting former clients, and then brutally murdered them.

"This contemporary take on a locked-room puzzle is chilling, compelling and completely entertaining, and Claire Booth is a wonderful new voice in crime fiction.”—Hank Phillippi Ryan on The Branson Beauty It starts out as an interesting little theft case. Branson, Missouri’s new Sheriff Hank Worth is called out to look at stands of trees that have been stripped of their bark, which the property owner had planned to harvest for the booming herbal supplement market. At first, Hank easily balances the demands of the investigation with his fledging political career. He was appointed several months earlier to the vacant sheriff position, but he needs to win the fast-approaching election in order to keep his job. He thinks the campaign will go well, as long as he’s able to keep secret the fact that a group of undocumented immigrants – hired to cut down the stripped trees – have fled into the forest and he’s deliberately not looking for them. But then the discovery of a murder victim deep in the Ozark backwoods sets him in the middle of a generations-old feud that explodes into danger not only for him, but also for the immigrants, his deputies, and his family. He must rush to find a murderer before election day, and protect the vulnerable in Branson County, where politicking is hell and trespassing can get you killed. In Another Man's Ground, her next novel featuring Sheriff Hank Worth, acclaimed author Claire Booth delivers a taut, witty mystery that will grip readers from the opening pages to the breathless conclusion.

The Achiever Fever Cure is a self-help book for skeptics, written by an ambitious executive who discovered a mindfulness-based path to greater fulfillment after realizing that she'd been "striving herself crazy." A successful entrepreneur at the helm of her own market research firm, Claire Booth was a lifelong striver. Driven by ambition, competition, and an unquenchable thirst for praise, she pushed herself relentlessly to appease the voice in her head that insisted: "You are not trying hard enough." But although she excelled at capturing consumer insights for her company's Fortune 500 clients, Claire was anything but insightful about her own inner state. Tired, unhappy, and full of self-doubt, she realizes that something must change--and maybe that "something" is her. In The Achiever Fever Cure, Claire turns the lens inward, making herself the subject of a personal "me-search" project to find out why she is so stressed out and unhappy, despite her success. True to her background in market research and her type-A personality, Claire's quest for inner peace is methodical and pragmatic. The book's structure and chapter titles borrow from the style and terminology of a market research report, laying out the objectives and facts before moving into implications and a redefined concept of growth. Appended to each chapter are Claire's findings from her own self-directed survey of high-achieving North American executives, examining their attitudes and involvement with activities like meditation, mindfulness, and positive self-talk. The book follows Claire through illuminating excursions into philosophy, psychology, behavioural economics, neuroscience and mindfulness. She also candidly discusses her initial resistance to what she sees as hippie-style sentiments, and her fear that slowing down and softening up will cause her to lose her professional edge. The book's target audience of stressed-out high achievers will be surprised and encouraged to learn that not only do mindfulness and self-acceptance lead to a more joyful and purposeful life, they can also be good for business. The year in which Claire conquers her achiever fever, her company experiences record growth. Readers will discover: How healthy ambition can turn into debilitating striving How cognitive biases undermine our ability to achieve what we want most Why living in the future can rob us of our ability to enjoy the present That we can exercise our minds, just as we exercise our bodies How we can re-envision growth to make it work for us With self-discipline, discernment, and infectious self-deprecating wit, Claire Booth inspires us with the discovery that it is possible to undergo profound growth and personal transformation while still staying true to oneself--even if you're a natural skeptic. In a world obsessed with hyper-productivity, The Achiever Fever Cure makes a powerful case that letting go of striving is the key to reaping life's most enduring rewards.