Secrets of the Cedar Walls - Beth Strauss

Detective Karen Cappelletti returns home after a long-overdue vacation to the whirr of a search helicopter’s blades shattering the quiet skies above her suburban neighborhood. A young woman has vanished. Evidence suggests foul play. And the officer heading up the investigation is Karen’s long-time nemesis: the careless, corner-cutting, and insufferably smug Dan Brennan.

When the missing woman is found—brutally assaulted, violated, and haplessly discarded— Karen’s pursuit of justice catapults beyond professional. It’s now personal. Drawn into a web of misogyny, silenced secrets, and sordid truths, haunting memories from Karen’s past are re-ignited, compelling her to confront not only the whispering cedar walls but the demons she long buried.

The deeper Karen plunges into the case, the more the line between hunter and hunted blurs. And when the trail of evidence ends, she is thrust into a nightmare beyond anything she’s experienced in her twenty years on the force. Caught in a deadly game of deceit, power, and revenge, Karen must follow her gut one last time, before the truth—and her own voice—are silenced forever.

Gripping, bold, and intensely passionate, this second Detective Karen Cappelletti novel delivers a taut mystery thriller where justice isn’t just an allegiance—it’s survival.

She knows how to hunt a killer. She never expected to become the prey.