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M.M. Chouinard is a USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and Amazon Charts bestselling author of mystery, suspense, crime fiction, psychological thriller and women's fiction.

She is best known for writing The Vacation standalone, and the Detective Jo Fournier Series.

Passionate about writing from an early age, she published her first fiction at the age of eight.

Chouinard pursued a PhD in psychology and helped to start the first US research university of the new millennium, University of California, Merced before finally focusing on her writing.

The author currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Whenever she isn't writing, Chouinard can be found working on her family genealogy, and exploring the visual side of her creativity through nail art and paper crafts.

She loves coffee, chocolate, bullet journaling, tarot cards, and all things Halloween or zombie apocalypses.

More about M.M. Chouinard

Genres: Crime Suspense, Mystery, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Women's Fiction

United States

Website: https://www.mmchouinard.com/

Non Series

  • The Vacation (2021)

Detective Jo Fournier

  1. The Dancing Girls (2019)
  2. Taken to the Grave (2019)
  3. Her Daughter's Cry (2020)
  4. The Other Mothers (2021)
  5. Her Silent Prayer (2022)
  6. What They Saw (2022)
  7. Little Lost Doll (2023)
  8. Angels in the Snow (2023)
Non Series

Detailed book overview

Non Series

The Vacation

One of them is missing… One of them did it…

The Thanksgiving retreat was meant to be a time for them to get away from it all, miles from the secrets that threaten to tear their family apart. But they’re each hiding something:

Rose hopes the pretty house overlooking the sea is just the break her family needs. But as she gazes at the water and remembers her own childhood, she is utterly terrified.

Brandon knows his wife Rose has barely forgiven him for his affair. He’s started drinking again, a road that led him to disaster once before.

Brianna, Rose’s sister-in-law, is recovering from her fifth miscarriage, and when she looks at her adorable niece, she can’t help but see the daughter she deserves.

Then three-year-old Lily disappears from her bed in the villa. Isolated in what should have been paradise, it quickly becomes clear that one of them took her.

As one by one their secrets are uncovered, who will be destroyed next?

Author: M.M. Chouinard
First Release: 2021
ISBN: 978-1800193642
Publisher: Bookouture

Detective Jo Fournier

The Dancing Girls

Jo pulled together the victims’ pictures. In all cases their arms were askew, in a way that looked like—what? It was like they were freeze-framed in the middle of some action. It was like they were dancing.

When loving wife Jeanine Hammond is found dead in a small leafy town in Massachusetts, newly promoted Detective Jo Fournier is shocked to her core. Why leave her body posed like a ballerina? Why steal her wedding band and nothing else? Hungry for answers, Jo questions Jeanine’s husband, but the heart-breaking pain written on his face threatens to tear open Jo’s old wounds. It’s the same pain she felt when her boyfriend was cruelly shot dead by a gang in their hometown of New Orleans. She couldn’t get justice for him, but she’s determined to get justice for Jeanine’s devastated family.

But before Jo can get answers, another woman is found, wedding ring stolen, body posed in the same ritualistic way.

Digging through old files, Jo makes a terrifying link to a series of cold cases. She knows a serial killer is on the loose, but nobody will listen to the truth – not her bosses, nor the FBI. Still, Jo won’t let her superiors keep her from stopping the murderer in his tracks, even if it means the end of her career.

Just as she is beginning to lose hope, she finds messages on the victims’ computers that feel like the crucial missing link. But she knows the murderer is moments away from selecting his next victim. Will she be able to take down the most twisted killer of her career before another innocent life is lost?

Author: M.M. Chouinard
First Release: 2019
ISBN: 978-1786818249
Publisher: Bookouture
Taken to the Grave

In a town full of secrets, the truth won’t stay buried…

It’s a sleepy morning in suburbia when Britney Ratliffe’s body is discovered by a running trail in the town of Oakhurst. Local detective Jo is shocked to the core. Because Britney is the second innocent victim to turn up dead in three days. And just like the first, a tarot card has been left by the body. The meaning of the card: betrayal.

Jo soon discovers that the girl was a student at the local college, the same college where the first victim, Professor Michael Whorton, taught. When Jo uncovers a secret affair between Britney and Michael, her suspicions immediately fall upon Michael’s wife, Camilla. Camilla’s suffered the ultimate betrayal, and her motive for killing the couple is strong.

But then a third body is found and Jo’s theory unravels. The victim is a sweet and vulnerable woman, who Camilla clearly liked. Why would anyone want to kill her? Jo knows she’s running out of time to crack the code and bring the killer to justice, and she knows how it feels to lose someone. Her failure to protect her fiancé on the night he was murdered has always haunted her, and she’ll do whatever it takes to stop more innocent lives being lost. Can Jo find the twisted murderer sending the town into a panic before another life is lost? Or this time, will the dangerous killer find her first?

Author: M.M. Chouinard
First Release: 2019
ISBN: 978-1786818263
Publisher: Bookouture
Her Daughter's Cry

Someone wants her dead, and she can’t remember why.

Zoe is a wife and a mother. Or so she’s been told. Ask her for more than that and she couldn’t tell you. The blow to her head wiped her memory clean.

Zoe knows the blood on her shirt isn’t just her own. After she was found stumbling out of the woods, the police ran tests. They say it belongs to her missing daughter.

Zoe is trying to piece together what her daughter’s face looks like, but all she can conjure up is a white-hot panic. A fear that her child is in desperate need of her help.

When a man claiming to be her husband turns up looking for her, she knows she can’t trust him. Until she gets her memories back, she can’t trust anyone. Not the stranger, not the police investigating, not even herself…

Author: M.M. Chouinard
First Release: 2020
ISBN: 978-1786818287
Publisher: Bookouture
The Other Mothers

It’s a crisp spring morning when the small-town community around Briar Ridge Elementary School is shattered by devastating news. Bright and shy five-year-old Nicole has disappeared at recess.

Nicole’s mother, Gia, is lost in her grief. On the same day her baby girl vanished, Gia found out she was pregnant with the sister Nicole had begged for. Gia is also devastated that her best friend Karen was supervising the playground when Nicole was taken. And when Nicole’s body is discovered, Gia can’t help but ask: why didn’t Karen protect her little girl?

Someone knows what happened in school that day and Detective Jo Fournier is determined to find the truth. Jo’s little nieces also attend Briar Ridge and she would cross mountains to keep them safe. As she starts to dig into the mothers’ secrets, she begins to wonder if anyone is telling the truth. Gia’s been hiding a part of herself for years and Jo can tell it’s eating her apart. And Karen is definitely lying—but what is more important than finding the killer of her best friend’s daughter?

As Gia and Karen struggle with their guilt, a teacher at Briar Ridge dies in what looks like a tragic accident. But with two deaths in such a short time, Jo knows better than that. In this school, where soccer moms flock to the gates with cookies for teachers, someone is willing to kill to keep a secret. The only question is who.

Author: M.M. Chouinard
First Release: 2021
ISBN: 978-1800191242
Publisher: Bookouture
Her Silent Prayer

“Help!” she screams, kicking as hard as she can against the closet door. But it’s nailed shut, and nobody can hear her. She drops to her knees and curls into a ball like she did as a little girl, praying someone will find her before it is too late…

When the body of single mother Melissa Rollins is found trapped inside a bedroom closet in her immaculate suburban home, Detective Jo Fournier races to the scene. The small town of Greenfern is sweltering in a heatwave, and Jo is horrified to find that Melissa’s heating was turned up to the max whilst she died of thirst. Who would kill a devoted mother in such a cruel way?

Searching the house for clues, Jo’s team discovers that the front door was locked from the inside. And with no sign of a break-in, they realise the killer must be someone Melissa knew. But everyone in the frame has an alibi…

As she delves deeper into the case, Jo uncovers a link between Melissa and a recent cold case: another single mother who was tied up and brutally murdered. Someone is on a mission to kill local mothers, and Jo knows they will claim their next victim soon.

But as temperatures continue to rise and the team works around the clock to stop a twisted killer, someone from Jo’s past catches up with her. They’re watching her family’s every move, and they will stop at nothing to get revenge… Can Jo save the people she loves and catch the killer before it’s too late?

Author: M.M. Chouinard
First Release: 2022
ISBN: 978-1800199910
Publisher: Bookouture
What They Saw

Next to the lake’s dappled water, a woman lies on her yoga mat, her limbs twisted as if she is trying to crawl away. Her mug of tea steams into the cool air and her lips, still warm, are parted mid-sentence. But she will never speak or see again...

When Sandra Ashville is found murdered in a sleepy town near Oakhurst, Detective Jo Fournier is first at the scene. Jo is shaken by the similarities between herself and the dead assistant District Attorney, a dedicated woman with a heart for justice. And as she examines Sandra’s body, Jo discovers something that chills her to the bone: the bullet hole is covered by an intact blindfold. Why was Sandra only blindfolded after her death?

The very next morning Jo receives a shocking call. A judge has been brutally killed, before she too was blindfolded. Soon it becomes clear that the twisted serial killer is working with a deadly countdown: every morning, another body will be found. Working around the clock, Jo makes an important break-through: all the victims are connected to the same murder trial. And Jo’s dear friend and partner Bob Arnett could be next…

With the next morning rapidly approaching, Jo and her team pull out all the stops to catch the killer. But when she uncovers a stain of corruption that includes Bob, Jo faces an impossible choice. Can she trust her partner, when the evidence suggests he turned a blind eye to a grave miscarriage of justice? And as the body count rises, can Jo catch the killer before it is too late for her oldest friend?

Author: M.M. Chouinard
First Release: 2022
ISBN: 978-1803147192
Publisher: Bookouture
Little Lost Doll

The young woman lying on the forest floor looks like she’s dreaming; her brown hair fanning out into a crown around her head, her hands clasped over her breast. She could be sleeping—if it weren’t for the brutal slash across her neck…

It’s autumn in Oakhurst when Detective Jo Fournier rushes to local beauty spot, Crone Ridge Woods, desperately hoping to find Madison Coehlo alive. Instead, she discovers the pregnant woman’s pale and lifeless body, killed in the spot where she loved to walk her dog. Madison looked after her sick mother and studied at community college, who could have wished her harm?

Madison’s mother is utterly broken by her brutal murder, but she cannot give Jo any insight into the tiny doll pushed into her daughter’s hand. Supposed to bring luck to whoever finds one, is it a coincidence or a warning from the killer? When Jo gets another frantic emergency call, she rushes to the scene, determined to catch this cruel monster before he can steal more innocent lives. Her heart pounds when she finds another identical plastic doll.

As the local community panics, Jo and her team work round the clock to keep other pregnant women safe. The call logs of the murdered expectant mothers give Jo the clue she desperately needs, but her heart splits in two when she realizes another woman is in danger. Can Jo get to her first, or is the killer pulling them both into a deadly trap?

Author: M.M. Chouinard
First Release: 2023
ISBN: 978-1837900701
Publisher: Bookouture
Angels in the Snow

Her fingers numb with cold, Jo rushes to search for footprints in the empty parking lot before they are covered in snow. Her cousin and her little daughter never came home tonight and she is desperate to find them. With temperatures dropping, no-one can survive outside for long…

When Detective Jo Fournier’s cousin goes missing with her sweet five-year-old Alexia, Jo heads straight to where they were last seen. Her heart stops when she finds their unlocked car—one door has been left open and Alexia’s beloved teddy is lying in the snow. Jo’s blood runs cold as she realizes her family have been kidnapped…

Even as she swears to bring them home, Jo makes a discovery that chills her to the bone: other young, single mothers have vanished with their little daughters just before Christmas.

As Jo’s team re-open the cold cases, they make a terrible discovery. Buried deep under the snow in the forest near Oakhurst are the bones of a mother and daughter who disappeared. The snowy grave contains a little angel, the kind you would hang on a Christmas tree.

With no sign of her cousin and little Alexia, Jo is sure that they are in the hands of a twisted serial killer and running out of time. Discovering suspicious activity in the security footage from the day her cousins were taken gives Jo the clue she’s been desperately searching for. Can Jo bring her family home safe, or has the killer lured her into a terrifying trap?

Author: M.M. Chouinard
First Release: 2023
Ebook: B0CGDMKGLF
Publisher: Bookouture