Gardiner and Renner

In this tour de force of psychological suspense, bestselling author Lisa Black draws from her experience as a forensic investigator to create fascinating characters, including a woman in a lifelong relationship with death. Her latest case is an unidentified female in her early teens, discovered in a local cemetery. More shocking than the girl's injuries - for Maggie at least - is the fact that no one has reported her missing. She and the detectives assigned to the case (including her cop ex-husband) are determined to follow every lead, run down every scrap of evidence. But the monster they seek is watching every move, closer to them than they could possibly imagine.

A copy editor at the Cleveland Herald is found hanging above the grinding wheels of the newspaper assembly line, a wide strap wrapped around his throat. Forensic investigator Maggie Gardiner has her suspicions about this apparent suicide inside the tsunami of tensions that is the news industry today-and when the evidence suggests murder, Maggie has no choice but to place her trust in the one person she doesn't trust at all. In the past, Jack Renner has used his skills and connections as a homicide detective to take the law into his own hands, all in the name of justice. But when more newspaper employees are slain, Jack may be the only person who can help Maggie unmask the killer.

The scene of the crime is lavish but gruesome. In a luxurious mansion on the outskirts of Cleveland, a woman's body lies gutted in a pool of blood on the marble floor. The victim is Joanna Moorehouse, founder of Sterling Financial, and the killer could be any one of her associates. Maggie knows that to crack the case, she and Jack will have to infiltrate the cutthroat world of high-stakes finance. But the offices of Sterling Financial seethe with potential suspects, every employee hellbent on making a killing. When another officer uncovers disturbing evidence in a series of unrelated murders, the investigation takes a surprising detour. Only Maggie recognizes the blood-soaked handiwork of a killer who has committed the most heinous of crimes-and will continue to until he is stopped. Burdened with unbearable secrets, Maggie must make an agonizing choice-while her conscience keeps telling her that she's next.

Fifteen-year-old Rachael Donahue-abandoned by society, raised in foster homes, and violently unapproachable-has been discovered, dead, at the bottom of a stairwell at Firebird, the secure facility for juvenile offenders in Cleveland. For Maggie and Jack, her death comes with a disturbing twist-the girl may have been involved with a much older man. But Rachael's not the only resident at the center to come to a dead end. Firebird's ten-year-old wild child has overdosed in the infirmary-back-to-back tragedies that appear to be terrible accidents. As a forensic investigator, Maggie knows appearances can be deceiving. And Jack knows all about deceit. That's why they both suspect a cold-blooded murderer is carrying out a deadly agenda. As Maggie's ex-husband gets nearer to uncovering the secrets that Maggie and Jack must hide, it becomes increasingly difficult for them to protect a new vulnerable victim from a killer with unfathomable demons.

Three days before a key election, U.S. Senator Diane Cragin is electrocuted on her own doorstep-a shocking twist in an already brutal political race. Cragin's chief of staff is quick to blame rival Joey Green, a city development director who's had his hand in every till in town for over twenty years. Maggie and Jack have their own theories, especially after discovering a fortune in cash in the senator's safe. But as they follow the money through the treacherous landscape of Cleveland politics, they find many more millions in play-and more suspects. As Jack says, "Anyone can be dangerous, when they have what they think is a good reason." He should know. Now a Herald reporter is perilously close to discovering the truth about Jack's penchant for acting as both detective and executioner. With each passing hour, the stresses of the impending election expose new fractures and corruption at the city's highest levels. And as one murder leads to another, and another, Maggie and Jack's only hope of stopping a killer is an alliance that's growing ever more fragile.

Life and death have brought Maggie Gardiner full circle, back to the Erie Street Cemetery where she first entered Jack Renner's orbit. Eight months ago, she learned what Jack would do in the name of justice. More unsettling still, she discovered how far she would go to cover his tracks. Now a young man sprawls atop a snowy grave, his heart shredded by a single wound. A key card in the victim's wallet leads to the local university's student housing-and to a grieving girlfriend with an unsettling agenda. Maggie's struggle to appease her conscience is complicated by her ex-husband, Rick, who's convinced that Jack is connected to a series of vigilante killings. Also a homicide detective, Rick investigates what seems like a routine overdose on Cleveland's West Side, but here, too, the appearance belies a deeper truth. Rick's case and Jack's merge on the trail of a shadowy, pill-pushing physician, who is everywhere and nowhere at once, while Maggie and Jack uncover a massive financial shakedown hiding in plain sight. And when Rick's bloody fingerprint is found at another murder scene, Maggie's world comes undone in a violent, irreversible torrent of events...