Unattached

Keeping children safe isn't just a job for Terrance County Social Worker Leah Danco. After she's taken care of the children of the county, she heads home to help keep her drug-dealing brother out of jail, her paranoid mother out of the psychiatric ward, and herself away from the constant draw of the whiskey bottle. There is simply no energy left to think about letting a man in her life. Leah's resistance doesn't stop Detective Pete Kemper from trying. The life of every party, Kemp has charmed confessions out of more offenders than they can count. While investigating child abuse cases, Leah and Kemp aren't afraid to blow off some steam together behind closed doors. But when Kemp wants more, Leah is afraid of breaking her rule that she must remain alone and unattached at all costs. When two children are horrifically abused in what look like unrelated cases, Kemp and Leah are forced to work together to find justice. Explosive revelations follow that push Leah closer to the booze she has avoided for years and further away from friends, family, and especially Kemp. With everything else in her life falling apart, Leah turns back to what matters most: finding justice and some semblance of peace for those who were hurt. The further she investigates, the more her own life is at risk—and the more she learns that her life is full of people who won't let her take those risks alone.

Kristin Lee Johnson of Red Wing, MN Kristin Lee Johnson has been a child protection social worker for nearly twenty years and draws from that experience to write her novels. Born and raised in Brookings, South Dakota, she currently lives in Red Wing, Minnesota, with her husband and four children.