Debbie Burke Books In Order

Publication Order of Tawny Lindholm Books

Debbie Burke is an American author who sets out to write “thrillers with heart”. She has had success in her goal with the release of the Tawny Lindholm Thriller series of books.

The series began in 2016 with the release of Instrument of the Devil. That book was the winner of the 2016 Zebulon Award and the winner of the 2017 Kindle Scout Contest.

In addition to her work as an author, Debbie is a regular blogger at The Kill Zone and has had her articles appear around the world in publications. She does a good job in giving back to other writers as well. She is a founding member of the Authors of the Flathead and takes an important role in the planning of the annual Flathead River Writers Conference.

When she is not writing, she takes part in her hobbies which include zumba, walking, and hiking. She enjoys being out in nature and really appreciates her time out there as sitting in front of a computer too much can lead to kinks. She also has some great friends that she truly enjoys spending her time with.

Burke gets her ideas for writing from new or real-life events. Sometimes it will come just by reading a story. A great example of this is her first book, Instrument of the Devil. She was doing some research on power grid vulnerabilities when she learned that smartphone could disrupt the computers that control electric generating plants. At the same time, in her own life, she had gotten a new smartphone and was having trouble using it. This gave her the idea of a book: what if a terrorist rigged up a smartphone and gave it to a woman who is bad at technology to take down the grid? The idea stuck with her and lead to the plot of her first book.

Debbie has found that she has improved as a writer as she has gone on. She is what is known as a “pantser” which means that she doesn’t use an outline. She relies heavily on her subconscious while writing and just lets it come to her while using her knowledge of story structure. The biggest change that she has noticed in her writing over the years is that she is more aware of how the reader might be feeling when reading the book and how a character or scene will come across to the reader. She credits her blogging as well as meeting with book clubs and hearing about their reactions to the book as a big help in improving.

Instrument of the Devil is the first book in the Tawny Lindholm Thriller series. The book sees a man named Khalil Sharivar who can destroy an electrical grid with a smartphone. He has a plan to use this skill to take down Montana’s Hungry Horse Dam. Khalil has found the perfect target to finish this plan, a lovely widow named Tawny Lindholm who works there as a seasonal employee. Khalil seduces her and puts the device in her hands which quickly leads to her life spinning out of control. She has the feds are on tail and her family is left in peril. Tawny will need to act fast if she wants to get out of this alive so she sets on getting the phone back into the hands of the man who did this to her.

Stalking Midas is the second book in the Tawny Lindholm series. This one sees a lawyer named Tillman Rosenbaum. He’s the kind of lawyer who owns any courtroom that he steps into with his charisma and brains. He is successful and doesn’t trust anyone except for his investigator, Tawny. She uses her intuition with people and her honesty in her work which has helped connect her with TIllman.

Tillman suspects that his father Moe is a victim of fraud, but the father and son are no longer close. Tawny is desperate to keep her job so she agrees to help her boss with this personal issue. The loyalty that Tillman has to his father touches her. However, as she digs into the old man’s case she founds more layers to it than she had imagined and begins to wonder: is he the victim or the perpetrator? Tillman has no idea the danger that he has sent her into.

The third book in the series is called Eyes in the Sky. This one sees Tawny growing closer to Tillman, but trying to stay away from his teenage children. Tillman takes Tawny to his home in Montana which sees him living on one end of the house and his ex-wife living on the other. Neither wanted to give it up in the divorce and they now live like this. The kids are having trouble with the living situation and she wants to keep her distance, but that ends up going out the window when his honor student daughter overdoses and Tawny saves her. Now, she can’t turn away from the daughter. It seems as if there are those who are trying to destroy Tillman by targeting his family and Tawny will do whatever it takes to try and protect them.

Another popular book in the series is Dead Man’s Bluff. This book sees Tawny planning a romantic vacation to Florida, but the idea is upended by Hurricane Irma. Tillman’s beloved coach, Smoky, has disappeared into the storm which gives Tawny something to look into. It seems that Smoky had gotten involved with a shady sports memorabilia dealer and he may be on the run or, worse, dead. Tawny will begin to look for him which ends with her becoming a bargaining chip in a high-stakes life-or-death gamble.

Tawny returns in Flgiht to Forever, the sixth book in the series. The story takes place in pandemic times and sees a man named Leo break his wife out of the memory care lockdown and assault the employees who try to stop him. The couple heads to Montana where their daughter will ask Tawny for help.