A Scenic Hills Summer: A Colette Birzhan Mystery

When the bodies of three male sex workers show up on the banks of the Mississippi River, the St. Louis LGBTQIA community grows restless while searching for a missing bartender. The police have been slow to respond, and a local reporter suspects a serial killer might be stalking the city’s streets.

Unable to resist putting herself in front of a story as it unfolds, Colette Birzhan races to the Midwest to report on the case. She’s intelligent, provocative, and a proud trans woman. She’s also an award-winning investigative journalist for the New York City Tribune.

Having escaped the clutches of a small town years ago to become her true self, Colette yearns to tell the stories of minorities and under-represented people just like her. From seedy strip joints to private upscale men’s clubs, there’s no part of the city where Colette won’t go while tracking the killer.

Colette relies on the unheard, and often ignored, voices of the city to lead her one step closer to solving the case. When she teams up with a rookie hustler, the trail leads them to a quiet suburb outside of St. Louis called Scenic Hills.

Swimming pools, back yard barbecues, children riding bikes along neighborhood streets, Scenic Hills is a place where people go to escape the fast and dangerous pace of city life.

And it’s where a killer could be hiding.