Not the Killing Kind: A Novel
Maria Kelson
Sep 2024 · Crooked Lane Books
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About this ebook
Winner, 2025 International Latino Book Award Gold Medal in Mystery
Winner, Women Writing the West 2025 WILLA Literary Award in Mystery/Thriller
Winner, Eleanor Taylor Bland Award for Crime Fiction Writers of Color
Finalist, 2025 High Plains International Book Award in Fiction
This gripping, high-stakes debut thriller about the lengths mothers will go to protect their children is perfect for fans of Wanda M. Morris and Jess Lourey.
Boots Marez is a Latina single mother raising a headstrong and sly eighteen-year-old boy she adopted six years ago. She also runs a school that helps the undocumented people in her politically divided town in Northern California. When her son Jaral is jailed for the murder of one of her former students, her world is turned upside down.
Struggling to protect her son, Boots has to spotlight a community used to living in the shadows, putting her hard work over the years in doubt. Meanwhile, a vicious parents’ board wants to trash her ideals and oust her from the school she helped build. As she faces increasing danger to clear her son’s name, she must decide how far she is willing to go to bring her son home.
But nothing is as it seems—Jaral has been keeping secrets from her after all. And as she puts the missing pieces together, she will discover a deeper and darker web of lies that has been hiding in plain sight.
Winner, Women Writing the West 2025 WILLA Literary Award in Mystery/Thriller
Winner, Eleanor Taylor Bland Award for Crime Fiction Writers of Color
Finalist, 2025 High Plains International Book Award in Fiction
This gripping, high-stakes debut thriller about the lengths mothers will go to protect their children is perfect for fans of Wanda M. Morris and Jess Lourey.
Boots Marez is a Latina single mother raising a headstrong and sly eighteen-year-old boy she adopted six years ago. She also runs a school that helps the undocumented people in her politically divided town in Northern California. When her son Jaral is jailed for the murder of one of her former students, her world is turned upside down.
Struggling to protect her son, Boots has to spotlight a community used to living in the shadows, putting her hard work over the years in doubt. Meanwhile, a vicious parents’ board wants to trash her ideals and oust her from the school she helped build. As she faces increasing danger to clear her son’s name, she must decide how far she is willing to go to bring her son home.
But nothing is as it seems—Jaral has been keeping secrets from her after all. And as she puts the missing pieces together, she will discover a deeper and darker web of lies that has been hiding in plain sight.
Winner, 2025 International Latino Book Award Gold Medal in Mystery
Winner, Women Writing the West 2025 WILLA Literary Award in Mystery/Thriller
Winner, Eleanor Taylor Bland Award for Crime Fiction Writers of Color
Finalist, 2025 High Plains International Book Award in Fiction
This gripping,...
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Ratings and reviews
1 review
Claudete Takahashi
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September 16, 2024
What should a mother do when her son is accused of murdering a friend and the Police seems to be targeting only him as responsible for the killing? Boots will see her life turn upside down regarding work, friendships, her role as a mother and how she enacted it, the realization that her son has a life that she knows nothing about it. She'll go through hell and back to uncover the truth and put the culprits behind bars depicting a ring of slavery, prejudice, abuse and death.
About the author
Maria Kelson has two collections of poetry (as Maria Melendez) with University of Arizona Press, which were finalists for the PEN Center USA Literary Award and the Colorado Book Award. Not the Killing Kind is her debut novel. It received the inaugural Eleanor Taylor Bland Award for Crime Fiction Writers of Color from Sisters in Crime.
A former Santa Fe Arts Institute and Hedgebrook resident, she has given readings and workshops at campuses and literary festivals around the U.S. and served as an American Voices arts envoy in Bogotá, Colombia. Born in Arizona, raised in northern California, she has lived in one southeastern, three midwestern, and five western states. Connect at mariakelson.com.
A former Santa Fe Arts Institute and Hedgebrook resident, she has given readings and workshops at campuses and literary festivals around the U.S. and served as an American Voices arts envoy in Bogotá, Colombia. Born in Arizona, raised in northern California, she has lived in one southeastern, three midwestern, and five western states. Connect at mariakelson.com.
Maria Kelson has two collections of poetry (as Maria Melendez) with University of Arizona Press, which were finalists for the PEN Center USA Literary Award and the Colorado Book Award. Not the Killing Kind is her debut novel. It received the inaugural Eleanor Taylor Bland Award for Crime Fiction ...
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