romantic thriller
The Riddle Man
Some yesterdays can kill your tomorrow….
She’s a millennial, living a quiet, unassuming life in small town, Idaho. As far as the government knows, she owns nothing. The house is not hers. It belongs to the government. The name on her driver’s license barely registers when a customer calls her. And why should it? It’s not hers either. Most days she feels dead—inside and out.
Then a new neighbor moves into the house next door. He looks as if he carries the whole world on his shoulders and seldom lifts his head. His boring gray sedan sits in the driveway. His windows are heavily shuttered. There are no deliveries to his house. At least none that she’d seen. Then again, she’s long lost her perspective on what is normal, what is ordinary and what is dangerous. Still, being reclusive shouldn’t mean he’s a serial killer. She decides to be neighborly and invites him over. And suddenly, she’s staring at her living room wall, freshly ripped with bullets. And just like that, the past she thought dead-and-buried, comes looking for her. It reaches after her with claws that mean to rip and shred, whatever life she’s managed to patch together.
To run means to be hunted again. To stay…is not an option.
Back to Troy
She could lose her heart, mind, life—or all three.
Murders and disappearances. Spicy rumors and family secrets. A childhood crush turned ladies’ man.
This could not end well.
What really brought Emma Dill back to Troy? The need to remember—or to forget? The desire to solve a ruthless murder—or to move on? The hope for a blossoming new romance—or an old flame that just won’t die?
The murderer is a sociopath: a savage hiding in plain sight.
The victim is her mother: a former stripper, a hot-headed, cold-blooded enigma.
She is a twenty-two-year-old orphan: a spunky poodlehead, a spitfire in the guise of a songbird.
Her partner in crime is her old heartache: an irresistible freewheeler, a shameless tease…and a delicious, impertinent kiss.
Charged with fast-paced suspense and slow-burn romance, BACK TO TROY kicks off the series with two hundred pages of heat, adrenaline, and humor.
Buy your copy today and settle in for a ride. Welcome to Troy.
Meet Maki Matsui

Born and raised in Japan, Maki Matsui has been a lifelong reader and writer, first in Japanese and then in English. Besides being the author of two books—Back to Troy (2020) and Daisy Fields (2020)—she is also a classical singer. She makes her home in the hills of Western Massachusetts and is currently working on her third title.