Sidney shrieked, letting fly a string of colorful expletives when the huge black beast sprang from the shadowy woods. “If the devil had a dog, you’d be it,” she said, backing away as the animal pursued. “But I know the devil. He hates dogs.”

On her third failed marriage, thirty-four-year-old Sidney McQueen regrets her PhD in Psychology wasn’t useful in choosing husbands. She feels better suited choosing horses. When her divorce attorney advises her to disappear for a while, she heeds the warning. But can she disappear without a trace when her soon-to-be ex-husband, a powerful attorney with ties to Mexican drug cartels, is hell-bent to find her? He wants back what belongs to him—and it’s not just Sidney he’s after.

Forty-five-year-old Markus Yeager, former Marine turned CIA operative, has a top-secret past. Physical and emotional scars cause him to retreat to the small, west Texas town of Alpine to be near an old friend, the one person he trusts. Flashbacks haunt him. His purposefully crafted quiet life is up-ended when Sidney pulls into town, horse trailer in tow.

People from Sidney’s past start turning up dead. Terrified, she questions whether the refuge she sought at Yeager’s remote ranch is enough to protect her from the man she refers to as “The Devil.” Her life-or-death situation draws Markus back into the violent world he thought he’d left behind, a world of weapons, drugs, money, and dangerous traffickers who’d put a bullet in your head while they mouthed their Hail Marys. Markus pursues and confronts the enemy head-on, but first he must confront the demons hounding his mind.

Thrown together in a cauldron boiling over with emotional tension and physical danger, Markus and Sidney allow their tentative bond to feed their individual needs. Once the murderer is apprehended, they breathe a collective sigh of relief, and their relationship, once governed by mutually imposed rules, intensifies. However, when it’s discovered that the one in custody may not be the killer, chasing the truth becomes a frantic race against a deadly predator.

IF THE DEVIL HAD A DOG— an edge-of-your-seat thrill ride packed full of heart-pounding suspense.