Faces of Evil

Special Agent Jess Harris has spent more than a decade studying the many faces of evil. In her determination to stop a serial killer, she broke the rules, and it cost her everything. With her career in need of resuscitation and her love life dead and buried, Jess jumps at a chance to advise on a case that has the top detectives of Birmingham, Alabama, stumped. But the case forces her to confront all the reasons she put her hometown-and her first love-in her rearview mirror. Four young women have gone missing, and Police Chief Dan Burnett will do anything to find them before it's too late-even if it means asking for help from the woman who has spent a decade avoiding him. Jess agrees to lend a hand and welcomes the diversion of a new case, a new life to save to make up for the victims she's lost. But then the unthinkable happens: the crazed serial killer from her past follows Jess to Birmingham. The situation is becoming increasingly desperate, and time is swiftly running out . . .

The Player is a master in the art of torture and murder. No one had ever gotten close to capturing him until Special Agent Jess Harris targeted him with her relentless determination. Jess's actions may have cost her a job with the bureau, but the Player still wants his vengeance and he'll make Jess pay in ways she never imagined. The first victim is Jess's friend-and the killer won't stop there. With each new death, Jess becomes more certain that the only way to stop the Player is to give him what he really wants: her. Chief of Police Dan Burnett is determined to give Jess her confidence and her life back. With an offer on the table, a position as deputy chief of a new division, can Jess risk staying in her hometown and putting those around her in more danger? Or will she walk away to protect everyone she loves-including Dan, who just may want her back in his arms? The stakes are high, and a single impulse will determine who survives the Player's final, deadly game . . .

Jess is ready to start the next chapter in her life as the new deputy chief of Birmingham's major crimes division. But with her first love, Chief of Police Dan Burnett, acting as her new boss, it looks like Jess won't be able to put the past behind her that easily. Jess has decided to focus all of her attention on work when a celebrated ballet instructor is found dead by one of her students. Though Jess's instincts tell her otherwise, the death is ruled an accident, and the case is assigned to another division. Still, Jess can't shake the feeling that there's more to the story, and her investigation leads her into the worlds of Birmingham's gang culture and its powerful elite. Now Jess's investigation has dug a little too deep, and there's a target painted on her own forehead. Will she be able to solve the crime before her own life falls into jeopardy?

When Jess Harris moved back to her Alabama hometown, she thought she'd left her past behind her. But the blood bath the new Major Crimes deputy chief finds at a murder scene is beyond even the savagery of Eric Spears, the serial killer who now haunts Jess's life with terrifying text messages. Amid eerie echoes of the Charles Manson–like massacre, Jess investigates the dismemberment of a cop's wife, carried out while the woman's baby lay sleeping down the hall. The discovery of two more headless victims makes Jess wonder if it's a gang-related slaying, a personal vendetta . . . or something else. And the sudden reappearance of her ex-husband makes her question her future with Chief of Police Dan Burnett. As the net widens to include a shocking suspect, Jess realizes that the identity of the killer may lie with an autistic eight-year-old boy. With inner-city tensions at an all-time high and the community calling for blood, Jess must race to save an innocent child-and prevent a final, horrifying act of rage.

Pages torn from a journal . . . brutal murders . . . dark, ugly secrets. Jess Harris has a new case, one that is sure to shake the very foundation of Birmingham's wealthy and powerful. More than a decade ago the 'Five' had it all. In twenty-four hours they would graduate and head off to their Ivy League destinations. Except one last midnight celebration ended in death, and now, twelve years later, someone wants revenge. Determining exactly who is out for revenge is the easy part; stopping him before someone else dies has Jess and her team working overtime. As Jess uncovers the truth and solves the case, she receives a package from the Player, the serial killer obsessed with her. He is about to start a new game and she just got her invitation to play.

The serial killer known as the Player is taunting Jess Harris with pictures of his victims. He has dragged her into another of his deadly games. But Jess has a job to do in Birmingham. She's a deputy chief and her unit's latest case involves one of Birmingham's oldest and coldest cases. For two decades the Man in the Moon stole a little girl each year on the night of a harvest moon. Then suddenly he stopped, and the case was never solved. Now, thirteen years after the last child was taken, Jess receives a gift from the Man in the Moon-the remains of his final victim. When the bones and the terrifying messages written to Jess just keep coming, she and her team must find the Man in the Moon before he takes another victim. As Jess closes her case, one last message from the Player reminds her that the game is far from over.