DISTORTION, Topselling Texas Mystery on Sale 99 cents US or .77 UK

[Lucie Smoker]

At a 3-chord punk bar, artist Adele Proust slams down a Shiner with her best friend. She wants to forget her ex, but when shouts of “Fire!” send the nightclub into chaos, she ends up stumbling over a slashed-up corpse. The details of that murder scene etch into her memory, then she's yanked away. The nightclub is in flames.

Any clues to the slasher burn with that corpse except Adele brings them back in a painting, reversed. She paints the background huge with the victim in front, but small. Her signature technique brings out a pivotal clue: a paper currency strap. Thugs with big guns come after Adele.

Sure, the FBI can protect her, but they want something too. That victim was one of their agents and the murder suspects include both her best friend and her ex. Without explaining much, the FBI asks Adele to spy on her friends, for her country. Adele refuses until someone starts killing them off.