A reporter beaten to death. A missing notebook. An unending list of suspects. Detective Maria Varela hated Les Hilton. Then someone tied Les to a chair and worked him over until even his ex-wife couldn't recognize him. Tasked with finding his killer, Maria finds out that for all of Les's reputation as a mercenary, he still had some journalistic principles and was working on a story that threatened some of Las Vegas's most powerful people. At the heart of that story, Ariella Matos, a missing woman that no one seems to want found. In order to solve the case, Maria will have to find Ariella, but doing that might put everyone she loves in harm's way. This book is part one of a two part story. The second book, Carla, will be published on April 30th and is available for pre-order now.

A crypto influencer lured to her death. A circle of supposedly close friends eager to move on. A father recently released from prison hell bent on revenge. Jasmine Olivera called herself the Queen of Crypto. Then someone shot her twice through the window of her white Porsche. With no witnesses or physical evidence, Detective Maria Varela digs into the details of Jasmine's life. She finds a reality much different from the carefully tended social media image and suspects who seem pathetically shallow but are actually disturbingly devious. Finding Jasmine's killer is hard enough. Closing the case before an angry father closes it for her might be impossible. What the Reviewers Say: "Debut author Pascarella presents a frightening view of Las Vegas, far from the glamor and glitz of the Strip...Against this dark background, Pascarella has set a...

Who would want to kill a star long past his prime? In the sequel to The Desert Saint, Maria Varela returns to work after an extended absence. Her first case back is the murder of Benny Alvarez, a once famous comic, who was killed in the Revelation Casino penthouse suite. With all the security cameras and key card records, Maria and Michael figure this case will be easy to solve. They couldn't be more wrong. The casino owner, ostensibly Benny's best friend, wants the case closed quickly so as not to interfere with the casino's pending sale, and while all the evidence points to an obvious suspect, Maria's instincts tell her something is off. When newspaper articles start questioning Maria's fitness as a police officer, she knows someone really powerful is pulling the strings, and her new sergeant doesn't seem interested in protecting her. As she digs into the suspect and the evidence, she finds out that everyone has something to hide and...

This is book two of a two part story. The first part is the book, The Reporter. Usually the desert is where problems are buried. But this time it's where the solution is dug up.