Sleep Tight Daddy is a mystery thriller about Homicide Detective Benjamin Hawke, whose life has been turned upside down by his wife's tragic death leaving him to raise five young children. His elderly Italian mother and sister move into his home to help him pick up the pieces of his life. Hawke is torn between dealing day and night with murderers, pedophiles, rapists and parents killing their own children and not having the time to be the father he needs and wants to be. His four-year-old daughter suffers from nightmares because she can't understand why mommy isn't ever coming home. Having to rush out at night to investigate grizzly murder scenes prevents him from going to his eight-year-old daughter's soccer games. Hawke's ten-year-old son has not made wise choices when selecting his friends and has become involved in a petty theft. Two-year-old twin daughters and Touchdown, the family's beagle, provide some comic relief. Little John, his Mexican partner; fellow detectives Danisha Dunn and 'take no prisoners', five-foot-nothing Casey McGowan are his Squad Room family. Tensions rise in the Squad Room when Dunn and McGowan take an instant dislike for each other, threatening to take it outside to the parking lot. Jo Easterman, who was molested by her father when she was a young child, has become a psychotic murderer who remembers nothing about where she has been or what she has done. Hawke and Easterman's lives become intertwined when their young sons boost a watch from a local convenience store. Little does Hawke know that Easterman is the murderer he and his fellow Homicide Detectives have been looking for. A young girl found raped and left on the side of a major highway to die could have been one of his own daughters. A woman who has murdered her infant child, a pedophile murdered in a young girl's bedroom and a coin collector murdered trying to save his precious coin collection are all eating at Hawke's soul. When his sister decides to move cross country, Hawke hires a beautiful young woman as a nanny to help his mother with the children. He finds himself having feelings for the nanny, feelings he thought were buried when his wife died. Brought to the brink of despair, Hawke realizes something has to give. When his mother has health issues, Hawke is faced with making life altering decisions. This book is a page turner, moves along quickly. It has more twists and turns than a rattle snake.
About the Author: Mary Donna Morgan is eighty years young. Born in Connecticut, Mary has called the west coast of Florida home for over thirty years. Mary is a mother of two, grandmother of five and great grandmother of eight. She shares her home with Miss Emmy, her Labrador Retriever and Dachshund mix she rescued four years ago. She has taken many college and online courses in writing and for the past five years has been facilitator of Pasco Writers, a local writers group. Although writing since she was a young woman, Sleep Tight Daddy will be her first published book, fulfilling a lifelong dream. She is currently busy writing her second book called Crimson Snow.