The Alibi Artist
When a phone call at 11:47 p.m. pulls forensic accountant Maren Holtz into the aftermath of a suspicious death inside the Vance family's orbit, she discovers the kind of layered financial conspiracy she was built to unravel, and the kind someone is willing to kill to protect. Maren is accustomed to money moving sideways, ownership obscuring ownership, and trails engineered to exhaust anyone who tries to follow them. But the Vance case is different. Old money, older secrets, and a web of players, including Deidre Vance, Tobias Vance, Jess Carrera, Cassius Vale, Oren Quill, Helena Soren, and Edith Marlowe, seem to orbit the deceased in ways that don't add up. Even Greta Holtz and Rourke Soren, people Maren thought she could trust, begin to shift in her peripheral vision. And then there is the note, cryptic, typed, slipped into her files, suggesting that Maren's own biological mother is buried somewhere inside the same tangled history she is trying to audit. As she peels back each layer of falsified records, manufactured alibis, and convenient coincidences, Maren must decide how far she is willing to follow the money before the money follows her. Because in a case built on perfected lies, the truth is not a destination. It is a choice, and every choice has a cost.