Created by Tess Sharpe
Down in the boondocks , trailer trash teen turned twenty-something private eye MELANIE “MEL” TILLMAN goes about her business, plying her trade, and keeping her past where it belongs — in the past.
Until it’s all dragged back into the light by her boss, Nat Parker, the P.I. who taught her “everything,” She sends Mel to track down Chloe Harper, whom nobody — including Mel — has seen since high school.
Chloe, as in “the one who got away. ” As in the girl who broke Mel’s teenage heart. As in the one who helped murder and hide the body of Toby Dunne, back when they were teenagers.
That Chloe.
But Mel’s good at her job, and soon tracks down Chloe, in full survivalist mode and living off the grid in — as Mel puts it — “the middle of bumfuck nowhere Canada.” As in British Columbia.
Unfortunately, it turns out a group of powerful and dangerous men isn’t quite as ready to let the past fade away.
So, 2025’s No Body No Crime has a little something for everyone: a star-crossed queer romance, a dying mentor, vengeance delayed, attempted murder, actual murder, lots of trees, a little Deliverance-style action, misogyny by the truckload, nasty secrets unearthed, a dying mentor, and, why not?, a plane crash.
Not bad for a book that nicked its title from a Taylor Swift song.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- Born in a mountain cabin to a punk rocker mother, Tess Sharpe , known for both her YA and adult fiction, grew up in rural California. She lives deep in the backwoods with a pack of dogs and a growing cabal of slightly feral cats.
UNDER OATH
- “Dynamic plot twists, shrewd pacing, and well-placed timeline jumps provide sturdy narrative scaffolding, but it’s Sharpe’s depiction of Chloe and Mel’s complicated relationship—both in and out of control in dangerous situations, fiercely protective of one another but careful about what they share—that makes the novel shine. Readers who love rooting for antiheroes, or are hungry for queer stories that don’t put queerness at the very center, will adore this.”
— Publishers Weekly - “No Body No Crime is a wild ride―a downright sexy thriller with more twists, turns, and gasps than a roller coaster. It will raise your temperature and make your pulse race.”
―Ivy Pochoda - “No Body No Crime is a pulse-pounding, sapphic, romantic thriller… Full of family drama and secrets with deep roots, this propulsive mystery is best read in a cabin in the woods with a murder ballad playing in the background.”
— Kat Hillis and Rosiee Thor (October 2025, CrimeReads)
NOVELS
- No Body No Crime (2025) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
