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Owen Laukkanen

Biography

Owen Laukkanen

Owen Laukkanen’s Stevens and Windermere novels have been nominated for the Anthony, Barry, Edgar and Thriller Awards. A graduate of the University of British Columbia’s Creative Writing program, Laukkanen spent three years in the world of professional poker reporting before turning to fiction. He currently lives in Vancouver with his dog, Lucy.

Owen Laukkanen

Books by Owen Laukkanen

by Owen Laukkanen - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

When a body washes up outside Deception Cove, Washington, Jess Winslow --- once a U.S. Marine, now a trainee sheriff's deputy --- is assigned to investigate. But when she realizes it's "Bad" Brock Boyd, a hometown celebrity lately fallen from grace, things become complicated. The last person seen with Boyd was her own boyfriend, Mason Burke. An ex-convict and newcomer in town, Mason is one of the only people who can understand Jess' haunting memories of her time in Afghanistan --- and her love for Lucy, her devoted service dog. However, as the facts of the case point ever more squarely at Mason, Jess must face that everything she thinks she knows about him might be wrong.

by Owen Laukkanen - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Former U.S. Marine Jess Winslow reenters civilian life a new widow, with little more to her name than a falling-down house, a medical discharge for PTSD, and a loyal dog named Lucy. After 15 years in state prison, Mason Burke owns one set of clothes, a wallet, and a photo of Lucy, the service dog he trained while behind bars. When Jess' late husband piloted his final "fishing" expedition, he stole and stashed a valuable package from his drug dealer associates. Now the package is gone, and the sheriff's department has seized Jess' dearest possession --- her dog. Unless Jess turns over the missing goods, Lucy will be destroyed. To rescue Lucy, Jesse and Mason will have to forge an uneasy alliance.

by Owen Laukkanen - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

McKenna Rhodes has never been able to get the sight of her father's death out of her mind. A freak maritime accident has made her the captain of the salvage boat Gale Force, but it's also made her cautious, sticking closer to the Alaska coastline. She and her crew are just scraping by, when the freighter Pacific Lion founders 200 miles out in a storm. This job is their last chance --- but there is even more at stake than they know. Unlisted on any manifest, the Lion's crew includes a man on the run carrying 50 million dollars in stolen Yakuza bearer bonds. The Japanese gangsters and the thief's associates want the money. Another salvage ship, far bigger and more powerful than Gale Force, is racing to the rendezvous as well.

by Owen Laukkanen - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

She was a forgotten girl, a runaway found murdered on the High Line train through the northern Rocky Mountains and, with little local interest, put into a dead file. But she was not alone. When Kirk Stevens and Carla Windermere of the joint FBI-BCA violent crime force stumble upon the case, they discover a horror far greater than anyone expected --- a string of murders on the High Line, all of them young female drifters whom no one would notice. But someone has noticed now. Through the bleak midwinter and a frontier land of forbidding geography, Stevens and Windermere follow a frustratingly light trail of clues --- and where it ends, even they will be shocked.

by Owen Laukkanen - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Kirk Stevens and Carla Windermere of the joint BCA-FBI violent crime task force have handled shocking cases before, but this one is different. Stevens’ daughter, Andrea, is distraught over a classmate’s suicide, but what the two investigators find is even more disturbing --- an online suicide club of unhappy teenagers, presided over by an anonymous presence who seems to be spurring them on. It soon becomes apparent that the classmate wasn’t the first victim --- and won’t be the last, either, unless they can hunt down this psychopath once and for all.

by Owen Laukkanen - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

A sheriff’s deputy steps out of a diner on a rainy summer evening, and a few minutes later, he’s lying dead in the mud. When BCA agent Kirk Stevens arrives on the scene, he discovers that local authorities have taken into custody a single suspect: a hysterical young woman found sitting by the body, holding the deputy’s own gun. The mystery only deepens from there, as Stevens and Carla Windermere find themselves on the trail of a massive international kidnapping and prostitution operation.

by Owen Laukkanen - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

State investigator Kirk Stevens and his occasional colleague, FBI special agent Carla Windermere, witness the assassination of one of the state’s wealthiest men. The events of that day will lead Stevens and Windermere across the country, down countless blind alleys, and finally to a very flourishing 21st-century enterprise: a high-tech murder-for-hire social media website. But just who has the dead-eyed shooter targeted next…and who’s choosing his victims?

by Owen Laukkanen - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

From the outside, Carter Tomlin’s life looked perfect. In reality, he has lost his job, the bills are mounting, and that perfect life is hanging by a thread. Desperate, he robs a bank. Then another. As the red flags start to go up, FBI Special Agent Carla Windermere homes in on Tomlin from one direction, while Minnesota state investigator Kirk Stevens picks up the trail from another. But Tomlin has guns and a new taste for violence. And he’s not quitting anytime soon.

by Owen Laukkanen - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Four friends --- recent college graduates who are caught in a terrible job market --- joke about turning to kidnapping to survive. And then, suddenly, it's no joke. For two years, the strategy they devise --- quick, efficient, low risk --- works like a charm. Until they kidnap the wrong man.