Jude Pittman is author of the Kelly McWinter PI series: Deadly Secrets, Deadly Betrayal, Deadly Consequences and Deadly Lights, as well as co-author Pillars of Avalon, Canadian Historical Brides, Newfoundland, Street Justice, and Mother Shipton and the Sister Witches.
Jude is the publisher and part owner of BWL Publishing Inc.
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The Shipton history is complicated. Some families have a guardian angel.
The Shiptons have a guardian ancestor who whizzes through the centuries and jumps right in whenever one of her girls is in trouble. All the girls have power and they’re watched over by elder sister Lillian, who takes her job as family trouble shooter seriously.
There’s no shortage of trouble to be sorted out either and even with their own powers each of the girls needs help. First Katherine's oilman fiancé disappears in the Gulf of Mexico, and then Irene's world champion saddle bronc rider fiancé is sabotaged and in danger of being trampled by a bucking bronco.
The spider-web of trouble stretching between these three modern sister witches might be too much for even a time-traveling guardian angel to handle on her own.
Finding a murdered First Nation's girl in Vancouver's Stanley Park, in the middle of tourist season, was the last thing homicide detective Mark Hanson needed, but that's what he's got. Mark turned for help to the local Friendship Centre, where Metis police liaison Dez Pallaton suggested they ask for help from Spirit Water, a well-known Shaman who held the respect and confidence of the First Nations community.
In an attempt to keep the murder from triggering a race war, Dez convinced Mark to give him time to try and find the killer before revealing evidence that pointed suspicion at the Native community. Although the homicide detective was skeptical, he agreed with Dez that they needed to find this killer before more bodies started turning up in the City. With the help of his co-worker Martine LaChance, Dez set out to uncover the secrets hidden in the murdered girls' past. Both he and Martine believe the killer is a serial; a madman who is leaving clues that point a false trail to a Native as the killer. With the help of Spirit Water, and the aid of forces in both the spirit world and the mundane, they are determined to find the killer before more innocent girls die at his hands.
David and Sara Kirke live in a time of upheaval under the reign of King Charles I who gives, then takes. He gives David the nod of approval to range up and down the French Canadian shores, burning colonies and pillaging ships that are loaded with goods meant for the French. When Louis XIII of France shouts his outrage, King Charles reneges. He takes David’s prizes and returns them to the French, putting David and his family in dire straits.
Undeterred, David and Sara will not be denied. After years, the king relents. He knights David and gives him a grant for the whole of Newfoundland and Labrador. There David and Sara build a prosperous plantation. They trade fish and fish oil with colonies down the American coast, Barbados and ports of call in the Mediterranean. They thrive while England is torn in two by the civil wars.
Soon, these troubles engulf his family. David is carried in chains back to England to stand trial for being a malignant, a follower of Laud's high church. He entreats Sara to manage the Ferryland plantation, a daunting task but with a strength that defies a stalwart man, she digs in and prospers, becoming the first entrepreneur of Newfoundland.
Kelly McWinter is a former Fort Worth police officer who suffered a personal tragedy that caused him to quit the force and isolate himself in the community of Indian Creek, Texas. 
Kelly is the Clint Eastwood, John Wayne type of man who makes everyone feel safe. The characters at Indian Creek are so unique and eccentric that readers and reviewers alike have fallen in love with the regulars who frequent Cam Belcher's Hideaway Bar and Barbecue.
Review
Tammy from Fallen Angel reviews describes the Kelly McWinter P.I. mysteries as "A fabulous mixture of Texas humor, heart-pounding action, sexy nuances and mounting suspense. There's plenty of excitement, plenty of intrigue, a local flavor to tickle the toughest of taste buds and a good serving of hot, steamy romance to titillate the senses."regulars who frequent Cam Belcher's Hideaway Bar and Barbecue
Kelly McWinter has made the switch from narcotics cop to fulltime PI, and he’s on the trail of a tricky and resourceful killer, who could just put a permanent end to Kelly’s new career.
A friend, who readers will remember from Kelly’s adventures in Deadly Secrets, has asked Kelly to help prove her niece is innocent of murder. It doesn’t help that the niece’s fingerprints are all over the murder weapon, that she has no alibi, that she’s pregnant with the married murder victim’s child, and that the last words anyone heard her say were “I’ll kill you.”
Kelly McWinter and Gillian are keeping a promise, and taking their first vacation as a couple at Bubba’s Paradise Lodge. Of course, the fact that Cam Belcher, the owner of the Hideaway and feisty redhead Stella Davis, have picked this particular Paradise to tie the knot is the icing on the wedding cake.
Everything is perfect – the setting is gorgeous, the weather is heavenly and love is definitely in the air. At least that’s the way it seemed when Kelly and Gillian returned from the wedding of their best friends and prepared to settle in for the night in one of Bubba’s romantic little cabins.
Flash forward to the middle of the night, and the sound of Bubba Tate banging the hell out of the cabin door is enough to put a damper on any vacation, and when the reason for Bubba's late night intrusion turns out to be the murder of one of Gillian’s stable boys back at her riding stable in Fort Worth, the wedding is over and Paradise is in the rear view mirror of the 747 taking Kelly and Gillian back home to Texas. The small community of Indian Creek is rocked by the nasty doings at Eagle Mountain Lake: a dirty rotten snake peddling child porn, a psychopath killing stable hands and a monster who beat a pretty teenage girl over the head and left her for dead.
Kelly and his old partner Augustus Graham are hard pressed to discover the truth disguised by the lies and mis-directions hidden in this intricate whodunnit, and Kelly is desperate to solve these crimes before Gillian sinks in the muck that someone is dumping on her riding stable.
Texas PI, Kelly McWinter, has just landed a dream of a job. Nashville songstress, and family friend, Marcy Fischer has been nominated for the Academy of Country Music's female vocalist of the year award, but her husband is stuck in Russia on a special assignment for the President, and Marcy's been having trouble with a fan who tried to break into their house. Mark is determined to get his wife the best protection possible, and that means Kelly McWinter. Not only is Kelly a pal, but he once saved Marcy from a murder charge. Kelly and girlfriend Gillian are now happily married and with Mark’s promise of first class accommodations in Beverly Hills and Las Vegas, for the honeymoon the couple never managed to take it seems like a win/win situation. What’s so hard about guarding the beautiful songstress while attending a host of fabulous parties and having dinner with the likes of Blake Shelton. Life is good for the McWinter household. That is, until someone kidnaps Marcy's lovely young sister right out from under Gillian's nose while the two are shopping in Beverly Hills, and then all hell breaks loose when Marcy's erstwhile fan shows all the signs of turning into a fanatical killer. Yep, Kelly McWinter is going to need a vacation from his vacation.