Crossed

This first book in the Crossed series is the collaboration between a professional boxer turned engineer and an English teacher. Even more unlikely is that the authors are a mother and her son-in-law. He had a dream, and she wrote that dream into their first novel.

Dante Morelli is headed down the cold hallways of San Quentin to face lethal injection. His wife has disappeared, his best friend has had his throat slit, and Dante is responsible for the torture and eventual death of another "friend." What has led to this? Who is responsible? Where will it end? Though it is uncertain where it will end, it is certain where it began. It began with an unlikely love affair between a ruthless man, Dante Morelli, and his psychiatrist wife, Allysa. Their whirlwind courtship and marriage seems to be ideal-that is, until Allysa disappears. One day she simply doesn't come home. Dante calls her best friend, Ellen Martin, and it is revealed that the last person Allysa saw was Ellen's husband, Dave, which doesn't bode well for Dave. Detective Mike Seneti takes the case and diligently works to find Allysa and those responsible for her disappearance, encountering carnage at every turning point as Morelli takes the law into his own hands to find his adored wife.