Debut Novelist H.G. McKinnis Releases A JUSTIFIED BITCH: A LAS VEGAS MYSTERY

"Sometimes reality is too harsh," says H.G. McKinnis, "and must be softened with fantasy until the pain dulls and life can go on."

In McKinnis' new book, A Justified Bitch, Helen Taylor is a Las Vegas cat lady who has regular conversations with her long-dead husband. While sitting on her porch in a once-decent part of town, one of Taylor's cats presents her with a severed finger from the prostitute who lives next door.

Confused by her story, the police take Helen into custody, and her sister arrives from Phoenix with her teen-age boys, Jordan and Marc. Pat is shocked to see the mental decline of her sister since her husband's death years ago. Helen's home is now filled with cats and a hoard of swap meet "merchandise," but even more disturbing are the on-going conversations with her dead husband, Bobby, and her inability to acknowledge Marc as her son.

Helen is admitted into a facility for psychiatric treatment. She manages to convince a fellow patient to help her escape as the hunt for the murderer intensifies. Meanwhile, Marc is caught peeping at showgirls, Pat purges Helen's house, and Jordan discovers his gift for entrepreneurship. Ron (Helen's business partner) offers to house sit and gives readers a glimpse of life as member of the working poor. Two gay hairdressers give Helen a "makeover" that changes more than her hair color as the police continue to look for her.

A life-long resident of Las Vegas and alumna of the University of Nevada, H.G. McKinnis knows her city as only a local can. By night she fluffs feathers and attaches rhinestones to the exotic wardrobes of the most glamorous venues on the strip, by day McKinnis writes about the often hardscrabble lives of her fellow desert denizens and the unlikely city they inhabit. A Justified Bitch, a twisted tale of insanity, murder, and redemption, is her first novel.

Learn more about H.G. McKinnis at AJustifiedBitch.com, on Twitter, Facebook and at Imbrifex Books.

A Justified Bitch is now available on Imbrifex Books, Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

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