Chapter 1 Thursday, May 20 Tucson, Arizona MATT COSTA, HEAD OF the FBI’s new DC-based mobile response team had been in his old office in Tucson for the last month to investigate two possibly connected cases: the murder of college activist Emma Perez, and possible illegal toxic dumping by a copper refinery plant that was…
Twenty years ago The Russell House group home for girls; Fairfax County, Virginia Seven-year-old Nina sat cross-legged on the floor with the others, breathless with anticipation. Every girl at the home envied Angelica, who was spending her final night at Russell House. Angelica had been chosen. Eleven years old and willowy, with long coltish legs…
Terra is a survivor. After the grisly accident that claims the lives of her parents, it takes a lot of work for her to get her life back on track. A stint in a psychiatric hospital to help her cope with her grief is followed by the seemingly compassionate decision to keep her back a…
Chapter 1 At thirty minutes past eight o’clock, red and blue strobe lights lit up the sky outside Grace Francone’s modest Cape house with the frenzy of a fireworks display. A quick check out the window revealed two cars parked in her driveway, one a sedan, a single twirling red light mounted to its dashboard,…
During the crazy and stressful climate we currently live in, it is nice to spend a few hours escaping into a good book. I often enjoy novels that take me to other parts of the world, especially when real-life travel is presently so restricted. The latest novel from Tasmanian author Robbie Arnott meets these needs.…
The cover of the haunting Tibetan-based novel The Ghost Moths by Harry Farthing features a quote that really cuts directly to the undercurrent that runs beneath the entire narrative: ‘The past can only determine the future if it survives the present.’ Sounds like a fortune cookie at a progressive Asian restaurant, but it really nails…
Every year readers wait in anticipation of the debut releases from new authors that will make an impact on them. It is hard to believe that it is only January and I have already read three debut authors’ releases that have ranged from very good to superb. I am pleased to say that A Crooked…
Once it was over, nobody talked about the missing. It was an unspoken pact carved into the town of Wolf Point, as if the thing that had taken so many of its residents could be awakened again by the mention of its name. It was strange how quickly Erin had gotten used to that as…
Hannah Maloney spent idyllic summers at Brackenhill Castle in New York’s Catskill Mountains when she was a teenager. They were halcyon days for Hannah and her older sister Julia until Julia mysteriously disappeared. Seventeen years later, she’s lives in Virginia with her fiancé Huck and their boisterous Irish setter Rink. Hannah only revisits her memories…
Prologue “Will it hurt?” Patty Cakes paused, the tattoo needle in her hand, looking at the man who lay facedown on the table. He was as white and hairless as a worm. She could have lied to him, but she never did that. “Yes,” she said. The man took a long time before he…
