Hell to Pay (What Doesn't Kill You, #7): An Emily Romantic Mystery

Big-haired paralegal and former rodeo queen Emily has her life back on track. Her adoption of Betsy seems like a done deal, her parents have reunited, and she's engaged to her sexy boss, Jack. Then client Phil Escalante's childhood buddy Dennis drops dead, face-first into a penis cake at the adult novelty store Phil owns with his fiancée, Nadine, one of Emily's best friends.

The cops charge Phil with murder, right on the heels of his acquittal in a trial for burglarizing the Mighty is His Word church offices. Emily's nemesis, ADA Melinda Stafford, claims a witness overheard Phil fighting with Dennis over a woman. Before he can mount a defense, Phil falls into a diabetic coma, leaving Nadine shaken and terrified. Meanwhile Betsy's ultra-religious foster parents apply to adopt her, and Jack starts acting weird and evasive.

Emily feels like a calf out of a chute, pulled between the ropes of the header and the heeler, as she fights to help Phil and Nadine without losing Betsy and Jack.

If you like Sandra Brown or Janet Evanovich, you're going to love Pamela Fagan Hutchins. A former attorney and native Texan from Amarillo who spent 10 years in the Caribbean, Pamela splits her time between a little place called Nowheresville, TX and the frozen north of Snowheresville, WY.