Ghosts

Deb and Gavin Mahoney start their first Christmas with their new blended family, seven-year-old Hal, five-year-old Jason, and eight-month-old Essie, by attending the Davises' annual Christmas party. The joyous celebration is marred by Gavin's having to reveal a scary secret about his health, as Deb confronts a friend's deep betrayal of her trust.
As they each are haunted by numerous ghosts from their pasts, Gavin confronts accusations of morally unethical behavior for a police officer, the truth behind what happened to him and his cousin Horatio in Afghanistan, and a diagnosis of a devastating disorder that costs him his career.
His personal struggles are forced into the foreground when he thwarts an attempt on Sam and Connie's lives by a pair of criminals seeking Deb's spider ring.
Once again Gavin and Deb are drawn into a dangerous game of cat and mouse with a deeply disturbed criminal with a vendetta against Gavin Mahoney.
Over the next five days, Gavin works to uncover who is out to steal Deb's spider ring and what it has to do with a five-day blackout he suffered after a violent skirmish in Afghanistan 13 years prior. Can he figure it all out before he pays the ultimate price?

Lacynda Mathes is a graduate of Radford University in Radford, VA. She holds a B.A. in English.
She is originally from Oak Grove, VA, in Westmoreland County near Colonial Beach. She graduated from Washington and Lee High School, Montross, VA, in 1986. She attended Randolph-Macon College, studied abroad at Wroxton College in Oxfordshire, England, and ultimately transferred to Radford University, where she completed her degree.
She currently resides in Sterling, IL, with her husband. She is the mother to their teenage sons, the eldest with special needs, who has been diagnosed with Lennox Gestaut Syndrome, a catastrophic childhood epilepsy, and severe autism.