Barb Stark Mysteries, Series by Margaret Koch

The son of an international crime family walks into psychologist Barbara Stark’s office seeking marital counseling with the wife he intends to murder. He believes he can easily document a diagnosis of suicidal depression for his hapless wife from this airhead blonde therapist. Therapy is supposed to cause change, but usually everyone survives talk therapy, don’t they? This time, the therapist might not survive... moreThe son of an international crime family walks into psychologist Barbara Stark’s office seeking marital counseling with the wife he intends to murder. He believes he can easily document a diagnosis of suicidal depression for his hapless wife from this airhead blonde therapist. Therapy is supposed to cause change, but usually everyone survives talk therapy, don’t they? This time, the therapist might not survive. The accelerating spiral of violence changes Barb's world forever and the crime scion soon finds that therapy is his worst nightmare. less

Roberto Mendez is the all-powerful CEO of an international crime family, with far-reaching tentacles of power. To his chagrin, he’s now in federal prison, thanks to the efforts of psychologist Barb Stark. The federal authorities want a lot of information from Roberto, but Roberto wants information from only one person – Barbara Stark, that infernal woman who put him into a cage and drove his son insane. He wants to know how she managed to do what no one else had ever done to him... moreRoberto Mendez is the all-powerful CEO of an international crime family, with far-reaching tentacles of power. To his chagrin, he’s now in federal prison, thanks to the efforts of psychologist Barb Stark. The federal authorities want a lot of information from Roberto, but Roberto wants information from only one person – Barbara Stark, that infernal woman who put him into a cage and drove his son insane. He wants to know how she managed to do what no one else had ever done to him. Invited in by the FBI, Barb’s not sure she wants to do a series of jailhouse sessions with this guy, but hey – he’s in prison. How hard could it be? less

Psychologist Barbara Stark has enough to do – her continued recovery from a murder attempt is almost complete, but she has a complex puzzle to solve. Her ex-husband's Aunt Allie left Barb a lot of money, but she also left undefined and unresolved problems –problems that put Barb squarely in the gun-sights of another killer. And as if that weren’t enough, religious cult leader Rev Byrd is out to teach Barb to respect him with his idea of “full blood atonement.”