No Such Thing as a Free Lunch — Shelly Fredman

It's the new year and puff piece reporter Brandy Alexander has the best of intentions to keep her life safe, sane and simple...but she is having one tough week! It seems that everyone at her new job at TV station WINN hates her--everyone except for co-worker Tamra Rhineholt. But when their budding friendship is cut short by Tamra's apparent suicide, Brandy suspects foul play and (against the protests of her friends and family) sets out to prove it. Soon Brandy is up to her neck in kidnappers, convicts and conspiracies--all the while battling her growing feelings for sexy mystery man, Nicholas Santiago. Of course the amorous advances of her hunky ex-boyfriend, Detective Robert DiCarlo complicate matters even more. Toss in a visit with her well meaning but overbearing parents, her total denial of her own emotional exhaustion and the free lunches she'd been promised but never quite materialize and you have the recipe for the newest Brandy Alexander mystery!