Lynn Combs

Autumn at the Lockwood Family Resort should be postcard-perfect—maple leaves, crisp air, and a stately cabin tucked deep into the woods. Instead it’s a warzone of stilettos, steel nerves, and well-practiced alibis. Clara, the velvet-gloved thief who walks out of Zurich vaults with bearer bonds and a smile, and Margo, the storm-timed saboteur who makes powerful men vanish without a trace, reunite for the annual family reunion, one family photo and a thousand grudges. Their older brother Vincent arrives as if he owns geopolitics—offhandedly blacking out power grids, lifting priceless art, and rewriting the family’s dirty laundry all before breakfast.

When private lies brush up against international investigations and old scores turn lethal, the Lockwood sisters must decide whether to back each other or bury one another. Loyalties fracture, secrets surface, and the only thing more dangerous than their enemies is the sibling who knows how to kill you most efficiently.

Witty, ruthless, and impossibly stylish, this darkly comic thriller asks: how do you survive a family reunion when the family is narcotics, espionage, and murder?

This Story took First Place in the Sleuths’ Ink 4th Quarter Contest on November 8, 2025.