Poison Pen

Book excerpt: Can handwriting be faked to make murder look like suicide? Forensic handwriting expert Claudia Rose must answer that question when powerful Hollywood publicist Lindsey Alexander is found dead in a hot tub. Police are all too willing to believe it's Lindsey's handwriting on the scrap of paper they're calling a suicide note, but not everyone is ready to accept this easy conclusion. Claudia Rose knows first-hand the publicist's ruthlessness and cruelty, so when Ivan Novak, Lindsey's business associate, begs her to prove the suicide note a fake, Claudia's instincts scream at her to run the other way. She hasn't forgotten how it felt to be humiliated by the best, nor the way Lindsey sabotaged their friend Kelly Brennan's marriage. But Ivan leans hard, and when she accepts the case, Claudia becomes trapped in a far darker scenario than she bargained for.