For the first time since Claire Kennedy died last week, there wasn’t a police officer guarding the site of her murder. Kayla peered out from behind the boarded-up beauty salon. Seeing no one, she hoisted her backpack and set out, kicking stones, her gaze fixed on the ground. She was careful to walk slowly. If […]

I have to. I’ve been fighting it all night. I’m going to lose. My battle is as futile as a woman feeling the first pangs of labor and deciding it’s an inconvenient time to give birth. Nature wins out. It always does. It’s nearly two a.m., too late for this foolishness and I need my […]

MOMMY FORGOT TO WARN the new babysitter about the basement. Chloe teetered on the top step, chubby hands reaching up to clutch both railings, her arms shaking so much she could barely hang on. Her legs shook, too, the Scooby Doo heads on her slippers bobbing. Even her breath shook, puffing like she’d been running. […]

AFTER FOUR NIGHTS ON the run, I was finally safe, tucked into bed and enjoying the deep, dreamless sleep of the dead…until the dead decided they’d really rather have me awake. It started with a laugh that slid into my sleep and pulled me out of it. As I rose on my elbows, blinking and […]

WHEN THE DOOR TO my cell clicked open, the first thought that flitted through my doped-up brain was that Liz had changed her mind and come back. But ghosts don’t open doors. They will, on occasion, ask me to open one, so I can raise and interrogate the zombies of supernaturals killed by a mad […]

He hated the forest. Hated its eternal pockets of damp and darkness. Hated its endless tangle of trees and bushes. Hated its smell of decay-dead vegetation, dead animals, everything dying, even the living creatures incessantly pursuing their next meal, one failure away from the slow descent into death. Soon his body would be one more […]

He watched the girl stumble from the motel office, room key glinting under the harsh lights of the parking lot. Lightning flashed, illuminating her figure. Tall and slender, barely more than a teen, too young to be out alone in a place like this, on a night like this. Thunder rumbled and crashed. The parking […]

TONIGHT I would watch a man die for his crimes. I would hunt him down and let a pack of giant black hounds rip him to death and send his soul to the afterlife, and I would trust that he had done something to deserve it. I was struggling with that concept. Not the part […]

As Gabriel’s Jag tore up the country road, I stared at the house ahead. Flames blazed from every window. An ambulance sat in the driveway, lights flashing. As I saw that, I exhaled. The only witness who could set my father free was in that house, and we’d been terrified we’d finally found her only […]

There was a time in my life when the prospect of watching a man die would have filled me with horror. Now, as I shivered beside the cenotaph, knowing death was coming, what I felt was very different. Only knowing it was too late to stop what was about to happen kept me from screaming […]

Brendan struggled to stay awake. A tough battle-far tougher than it should have been under the circumstances. They’d approached him behind a bank, its parking lot empty as evening turned to night. He’d been cutting through to the shelter, hoping it would still have meals. Hot meals would be too much to hope for at […]

With every book, I thank my agent, Helen Heller, and my editors, to whom I’m always indebted. But this one needs an unusually big thank-you to my editors. Writing multiple points-of-view had its challenges, primarily that more voices meant more blather… and a bloated first draft. A huge thanks to Anne Groell of Bantam US, […]

“Got another C S I question for you,” Gloria said as Simon walked into the communication hub with an armload of papers. “If you’re not busy.” “Perfect timing,” Simon said. “I’m just about to start my coffee break.” He started pulling a chair to Gloria’s workstation, then hesitated. “Can I get you something?” Gloria smiled […]

COME ON,” SAVANNAH WHISPERED, TUGGING THE young man’s hand. She climbed a wooden fence into the backyard of a narrow two-story house. “Watch out for the roses,” she said as his feet threatened to land in the border. “We gotta come this way or the old bugger next door will bitch about me having friends […]

AS TOM WATCHED the moonlight reflect off the ice-covered lake, he had a reflection of his own: the world really needed more snow. Sure, people paid lip service to the threat of global warming, tsk-ing and tutting and pointing at the glanciers receding right over in Kenai Fjords. But in their hearts, they weren’t convinced […]

TODD ADJUSTED HIS LEATHER POWER SEAT AND SMILED. Now, this was the good life. Driving along the California coast, road stretching empty before him, cruise control set at fifty, climate control at 68° F, Brazilian coffee keeping warm in its heated cup holder. Some might say it’d be even better to be the guy lounging […]