The Reckoning

A Renata Drake Thriller, Book 1

By: Kelli Stanley

Narrated by: Christina Delaine

SHE KILLED A MAN. HE DESERVED IT. BUT JUSTICE ISN'T YET DONE.

First in an explosive series set in the eighties from the author of the Miranda Corbie series introduces Renata Drake—on the run from the FBI for the execution-style murder of her little sister's killer.

California, Southern Humboldt County, 1985. Renata Drake steps off a Greyhound bus and into small-town Garberville, hoping to disappear. She checks the papers. She's not headline news. Not yet.

But she's made a mistake. The FBI have the cannabis-producing "Emerald Triangle" town—and its corrupt residents—in their sights. Even worse, a teenage girl is missing, and when she turns up dead, the third in three years, it's clear a serial killer is living among them.

Renata knows about murdered girls and the burning desire for justice—and for revenge. Her younger sister Josie is gone, and now, so is the man who killed her. Renata didn't stay in Washington, D.C. to be arrested for executing a murderer, and she shouldn't stay here either. But Renata decides to investigate, and what she uncovers will trigger a final reckoning.

This thriller explores the human cost of corruption and the psychological toll that violence takes on women.

©2026 Kelli Stanley (P)2026 Tantor Media