THE SEVENTH HOUSE

When a historic sandstorm cuts the power and seals every gate at Rancho Sereno, Arizona's most exclusive retirement community, its board president is found dead in the one room only he could unlock.

Community manager Maren Ostlund has been on the job three months. She knows the residents' names, their grudges, their secrets over lemon bars - or thinks she does. Now, with the roads flooded and help hours away, she's the only person standing between eighty-four frightened neighbors and whoever is still walking among them.

Every suspect has a motive. A patio dispute that turned into a threat. A twenty-year-old grudge that never healed. A financial audit that was never supposed to see the light of day. And somewhere in the community's oldest records, a spare key nobody remembered existed - and everybody wishes had stayed forgotten.

As the desert dries out and the truth closes in, Maren discovers that the kindest person in Rancho Sereno may also be the one with the most to lose - and that behind every carefully maintained gate, someone is always watching. The question is whether anyone was watching closely enough.

A gripping locked-room mystery for fans of The Guest List and The Thursday Murder Club - the first in the Gate Keeper Files series.