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Those Who Choose Evil
304 pages, Paperback
Published June 24, 2025
About the author
Kate Flora
55 books130 followersKate Flora grew up on a chicken farm in Maine where the Friday afternoon trip to the library was the high point of her week. She dreamed of being able to create the kind of compelling, enchanting worlds of the books she disappeared into every week, but growing up in the era when “help wanted” ads were still sex-segregated, she felt her calling was to go to law school and get the job they told her she couldn’t have.
After law school, Kate worked in the Maine attorney general’s office, protecting battered kids, chasing deadbeat dads, and representing the Human Rights Commission. Those years taught her all a crime writer needs to know about the human propensity to commit horrible acts. After some years in private practice, she decided to give writing a serious try when she quit the law to stay at home for a few years with her young sons. That ‘serious try’ led to ten tenacious and hellacious years in the unpublished writer’s corner, followed, finally, by the sale of her Thea Kozak series.
Kate’s eighteen books will include eight Thea Kozak mysteries, five gritty Joe Burgess police procedurals, a suspense thriller (written under the name Katharine Clark), two true crime books, Death Dealer and Finding Amy (co-written with Joseph Loughlin, a Portland, Maine Deputy Police Chief), a Maine game warden's memoir, A Good Man with a Dog, co-written with Roger Guay, and a book about police shootings from the police point of view, Shots Fired: The misunderstandings, misconceptions, and myths about police shootings, co-written with Joseph K. Loughlin. Finding Amy was a 2007 Edgar nominee as well as a Maine Literary Award finalist, and has been optioned for a movie. Kate’s award-winning short stories have been widely anthologized and Redemption and And Grant You Peace, her third and fourth Joe Burgess mysteries, won the Maine Literary Award for Crime Fiction.
Flora's fiction, nonfiction, and short fiction have been finalists for the Edgar, Agatha, Anthony, and Derringer Awards.
She is a founding member of the New England Crime Bake, the region's annual mystery conference, and the Maine Crime Wave. With two other crime writers, she started founded Level Best Books, where she worked as an editor and publisher for seven years. She served a term as international president of Sisters in Crime, an organization founded to promote awareness of women writers’ contributions to the mystery field. Currently, she teaches writing and does manuscript critiques for Grub Street in Boston.
She has two sons (one into film and the other into photovoltaics) two lovely daughters-in-law, an adorable eight-year-old grandson and five granddogs, Frances, Otis, Harvey, Oscar, and Daisy. When not conducting research for her novels and nonfiction—research that includes riding an ATV through the Canadian woods or hiding in a tick-infested field waiting to be found by search and rescue dogs—Kate can often be found in her garden, waging war against the woodchucks and her husband’s lawnmower, or in the kitchen, devising clever and devious ways to get the men in her life to eat their vegetables.
After law school, Kate worked in the Maine attorney general’s office, protecting battered kids, chasing deadbeat dads, and representing the Human Rights Commission. Those years taught her all a crime writer needs to know about the human propensity to commit horrible acts. After some years in private practice, she decided to give writing a serious try when she quit the law to stay at home for a few years with her young sons. That ‘serious try’ led to ten tenacious and hellacious years in the unpublished writer’s corner, followed, finally, by the sale of her Thea Kozak series.
Kate’s eighteen books will include eight Thea Kozak mysteries, five gritty Joe Burgess police procedurals, a suspense thriller (written under the name Katharine Clark), two true crime books, Death Dealer and Finding Amy (co-written with Joseph Loughlin, a Portland, Maine Deputy Police Chief), a Maine game warden's memoir, A Good Man with a Dog, co-written with Roger Guay, and a book about police shootings from the police point of view, Shots Fired: The misunderstandings, misconceptions, and myths about police shootings, co-written with Joseph K. Loughlin. Finding Amy was a 2007 Edgar nominee as well as a Maine Literary Award finalist, and has been optioned for a movie. Kate’s award-winning short stories have been widely anthologized and Redemption and And Grant You Peace, her third and fourth Joe Burgess mysteries, won the Maine Literary Award for Crime Fiction.
Flora's fiction, nonfiction, and short fiction have been finalists for the Edgar, Agatha, Anthony, and Derringer Awards.
She is a founding member of the New England Crime Bake, the region's annual mystery conference, and the Maine Crime Wave. With two other crime writers, she started founded Level Best Books, where she worked as an editor and publisher for seven years. She served a term as international president of Sisters in Crime, an organization founded to promote awareness of women writers’ contributions to the mystery field. Currently, she teaches writing and does manuscript critiques for Grub Street in Boston.
She has two sons (one into film and the other into photovoltaics) two lovely daughters-in-law, an adorable eight-year-old grandson and five granddogs, Frances, Otis, Harvey, Oscar, and Daisy. When not conducting research for her novels and nonfiction—research that includes riding an ATV through the Canadian woods or hiding in a tick-infested field waiting to be found by search and rescue dogs—Kate can often be found in her garden, waging war against the woodchucks and her husband’s lawnmower, or in the kitchen, devising clever and devious ways to get the men in her life to eat their vegetables.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 16, 2026
Those Who Choose Evil by Kate Flora is book 9 in the Joe Burgess series and follows a similar script of Joe finding an abused teenage girl, which sets him off to find the perpetrators and others potentially in grave danger. As always, the characters are rich, flawed, and multi-layered. The action is fast and dizzying, the relationships ebb and flow like the tide, and there is even a hero dog.
August 17, 2025
Det Joe Burgess ends many shifts with a drive to a local park where years ago he once found a prostitute beaten. Something sends him there tonight although he should be heading home. He finds a young teen, naked/beaten and close to frozen. Before slipping into unconciousness, she whispers "don't let them take me back".
This starts Joe with his crew (Kirk/Perry) on a hunt to find her identity and get her justice. Numerous attempts are made to spirit her out of the hospital with false stories, false lawyers, fake ambulances etc. The more attempts being made, the more Joe is determined to keep her safe.
It leads down a deeper evil story fueled by money of more teens in harms way.
Of course there is no story without a bit of drama at home with Joe's new family but he's got it all covered. The only hard to fathom part is how these detectives can work two days straight without rest.
This starts Joe with his crew (Kirk/Perry) on a hunt to find her identity and get her justice. Numerous attempts are made to spirit her out of the hospital with false stories, false lawyers, fake ambulances etc. The more attempts being made, the more Joe is determined to keep her safe.
It leads down a deeper evil story fueled by money of more teens in harms way.
Of course there is no story without a bit of drama at home with Joe's new family but he's got it all covered. The only hard to fathom part is how these detectives can work two days straight without rest.
July 14, 2026
THOSE WHO CHOOSE EVIL
Woe betide those who long for a quiet life, when life delivers problems that can’t be ignored. Joe Burgess, heading home for dinner, takes a brief detour to a favorite park . . . and so it begins. A severely injured teen, a mysterious “camp,” a long list of false identities, and more challenges, all insist on complicating his desire to spend time with his family. The toll is hard on them, but many have reason to be thankful to Joe and team, putting their lives on the line to save those in need. They, in turn, are grateful for the family and friends who help them keep their footing. This was a compelling “who needs sleep?” book, thoroughly satisfying.
Woe betide those who long for a quiet life, when life delivers problems that can’t be ignored. Joe Burgess, heading home for dinner, takes a brief detour to a favorite park . . . and so it begins. A severely injured teen, a mysterious “camp,” a long list of false identities, and more challenges, all insist on complicating his desire to spend time with his family. The toll is hard on them, but many have reason to be thankful to Joe and team, putting their lives on the line to save those in need. They, in turn, are grateful for the family and friends who help them keep their footing. This was a compelling “who needs sleep?” book, thoroughly satisfying.
July 5, 2026
Those Who Choose Evil is a gripping and expertly crafted thriller that keeps the suspense building from beginning to end. Kate Flora delivers compelling characters, sharp storytelling, and a tense atmosphere that makes it difficult to put the book down.
The plot unfolds at a satisfying pace, balancing mystery, emotional depth, and unexpected twists that keep readers invested. Fans of crime fiction and psychological suspense will appreciate this engaging novel and the skillful way the story explores justice, courage, and human nature.
The plot unfolds at a satisfying pace, balancing mystery, emotional depth, and unexpected twists that keep readers invested. Fans of crime fiction and psychological suspense will appreciate this engaging novel and the skillful way the story explores justice, courage, and human nature.
August 3, 2025
It was a wait for this book, but well worth it! With the three detectives' family lives it was nice for a Joe Burgess book to end on a hopeful note. I'm hoping it doesn't signal the end of this series.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews