Psychiatrist Tess Ciccotelli has spent her entire career trying to help people, and now, just as her patients are making headway and her practice is thriving, everything is about to come crashing down. Someone is using her patients' deepest, darkest secrets against them, pushing them to commit suicide, and framing Tess in the process.

There is a serial killer on the loose preying on vulnerable women. The only identifiable mark the killer leaves are letters - sometimes one, sometimes two - all carved into the torsos of his victims. Together, they spell “Sydney”. When he grabs Daisy Dawson, he believes he has found his next victim. But despite her small stature, she fights back with an expertise that quickly frees her. Before fleeing the scene, Daisy also manages to grab what proves to be crucial evidence: a necklace from around the killer’s neck.

FBI Hostage Rescue Team member Shane Livingstone is frustrated when an injury sidelines him during an operation to catch a sadistic killer. A killer who auctions off vicious ways to torture his victims and screens the events for money on the dark web. When a teammate dies during the op, a devastated Shane vows to track down the monster responsible—but to do so he’ll need access to specialized skills he doesn’t possess.

At a Texas county fair, children’s book author Elle Portman is enjoying a rare night out with her favorite cowboy: her two-year-old son, Charlie. But just as they’re about to head home, the unthinkable happens: a shooter opens fire into the crowd, causing widespread panic to erupt all around them. Also caught in the melee is corporate consultant Calder Hudson. When he wakes up in the hospital, he's told he's lucky. Others didn't fare we well, which instills in Calder a furious determination to get justice.

When a woman is found brutally murdered on Austin’s lakeside hike-and-bike trail, investigative reporter Bailey Rhoads turns up on the scene demanding access and answers. She tries to pry information out of the lead Detective Jacob Merritt, but this case is unlike any he’s ever seen, and nothing adds up. With the pressure building, Jacob knows the last thing he needs is a romantic entanglement, but he can’t convince himself to stay away from Bailey.

FBI Supervisory Special Agent Dominic Sheridan is an accomplished expert in the Crisis Negotiation Unit. Practiced, professional, used to dealing with high-stakes situations under tense conditions, Dominic is a master at manipulating people. Everyone, that is, but the headstrong rookie agent bent on destroying her fledgling career. As a child, Ava Kanas put her life on the line when the mob executed her father. Now someone has killed her mentor, the man who inspired her to become an FBI agent - and she’s the only one who recognizes it was anything but a tragic accident.

Trauma victims are not new to medical examiner Faith McIntyre, but this one is different. The unconscious woman clinging to life after a hit and run is FBI agent Macy Crow. What the woman from Quantico was doing in a dark alley after midnight is just one mystery. The other is more unsettling: Macy is Faith’s mirror image—the twin sister she never knew she had.

Former CIA assassin Alex Parker works for The Gateway Project, a clandestine government organization hell-bent on taking out serial killers and pedophiles before they enter the justice system. Alex doesn't enjoy killing, but he's damn good at it. He's good at dodging the law, too--until a beautiful rookie agent has him wondering what it might be like to get caught.

It's been seven years since the Seattle Strangler terrorized the city. His victims were all young, pretty, their lifeless bodies found wrapped in a home-sewn white dress. But there was one who miraculously escaped death, just before the Strangler disappeared. Lara Church has only hazy memories of her long-ago attack. What she does have is a home in Austin, a job, and a chance at a normal life at last. Then Texas Ranger James Beck arrives on her doorstep with shattering news: The Strangler is back....

Eleven years ago, the Co-ed Slayer murdered nine female students on the Oregon State University campus. Lacey Campbell barely escaped his attack, but lost her best friend whose remains were never found. As the sole surviving victim, Lacey helped send the sadistic serial killer to prison for life. Now a forensic odontologist examining teeth and bones for the state Medical Examiner, Lacey is devastated when she arrives at a crime scene and identifies the skeletal remains as her college friend’s.

Austin homicide detective Jordan Poe is hunting a serial killer she fears is the same man who assaulted her sister, Avery, two years ago. The details line up: the victims are the same age, same type, dead by the same grim MO. Luckily Avery survived. But the terrible memories linger, making Jordan more determined than ever to stop this monster in his tracks.

Deputy Shelby Lake was abandoned as a baby, saved by a stranger who found her in the freezing cold. Now, years later, a young boy is missing - and Shelby is the one who must rescue a child. The only evidence of what happened to 10-year-old Jeremiah Sloan is a bicycle left behind on a lonely road. After a desperate search fails to locate him, the close bonds of Shelby’s hometown begin to fray under the weight of accusations and suspicion. Everyone around her is keeping secrets.

Investigating the discovery of the body, Sergeant Holly Rudd knows she’s an unwelcome presence in the close-knit community of Bamfield. But she doesn’t expect the residents to be spooked by the mere sight of her. What rattles Holly even more, though, is her overwhelming desire for diver and former Special Forces soldier Finn Carver. Finn has no doubt that the corpse he found while diving was a victim of foul play - just as there’s no doubt that he wants Holly.

A girl with a secret. Longbill Beach, 1982. Emily Vaughn gets ready for the prom. For an athlete, who is smart, pretty and well-liked, this night that should be the highlight of her high school career. But Emily has a secret. And by the end of the evening, that secret will be silenced forever. Forty years later, Emily’s murder remains a mystery. Her tight-knit group of friends closed ranks; her respected, wealthy family retreated inwards; the small town moved on from her grisly attack. But all that’s about to change.

Terror stalks the streets of Bayou Breaux, Louisiana. A suspected murderer is free on a technicality, and the cop accused of planting evidence against him is ordered off the case. But Detective Nick Fourcade refuses to walk away. He’s stepped over the line before. This case threatens to push him over the edge. He’s not the only one. Deputy Annie Broussard found the woman’s mutilated body. She still hears the phantom echoes of dying screams. She wants justice.

The first victim is found in a snow-covered Philadelphia field. Detective Vito Ciccotelli enlists the aid of archaeologist Sophie Johannsen to determine exactly what lies beneath the frozen ground. Despite years of unearthing things long buried, nothing can prepare Sophie for the matrix of graves dug with chilling precision. The victims buried there haunt her. But the killer isn't done yet. He is cold and calculating, the master of a twisted game. Even with Vito and Sophie hot on his trail, he will not stop.

With her long ponytail and sparkling green eyes, Tessa Donovan looks more like the girl next door than a businesswoman - or a heartbreaker. Which may explain why Detective Luke Asher barely notices her when he arrives to investigate a break-in at her family’s brewery. He’s got his own problems - starting with the fact that his partner, Simone, is pregnant and everyone thinks he’s the father.

Twenty-three years ago, Anna North survived a living nightmare. A madman kidnapped her, cut off her pinkie, then vanished. Today Anna lives in New Orleans, writing dark thrillers under another name. She finally feels safe. Suddenly Anna’s quiet life takes a frightening turn. Letters start to arrive from a disturbed fan. Anna is followed, her apartment broken into. Then a close friend disappears. Anna turns to homicide detective Quentin Malone, but Malone’s more concerned with the recent murders of two women in the French Quarter.

Detective Matthew Bennett doesn't believe in ghosts. So when the spirit of a murdered child leads him to her body, he's shaken to the core - and taken off the case. Unable to explain his vision, or to let go of the investigation, Matthew turns to renowned medium Kiernan Fitzpatrick. Though he has doubts about Kiernan's claims to communicate with the dead, Matt is nevertheless drawn to the handsome psychic, who awakens feelings he thought were long-buried.

Something dark and dangerous had long shadowed Skye Dearborn’s life. She had seen the fear of it in her mother’s eyes. It was there, locked in her memories of blood spilling across a gleaming floor. In the sound of her own screams. And in the terror she’d felt the night her mother disappeared. Then fortune smiled on Skye. With help she was able to put the horror behind her and look to the future. But now that same fortune is leading her into the arms of danger - and back into the nightmare of her past. For the evil that has haunted her dreams has a human form....

hnny Harris is home again, his too-tight jeans and damn-your-eyes belligerence honed to perfection by a ten-year stretch in federal prison for murder. Now he’s out on parole and ready for the job Rachel Grant has promised him to help him begin a new life. Unlike the rest of the town, Rachel has always believed in her former student’s innocence. But one thing has changed. The sullenly handsome boy she remembers is still sullen, still handsome - but no longer a boy.

Molly Jennings has one naughty secret: her job as an erotic fiction author. Until her inspiration runs dry. One look at former high school hunk chief of police Ben Lawson and Molly is back in business. The town gossip is buzzing at her door and, worse still, a stalker seems to be watching her every move. Thankfully, her very own lawman has taken to coming over, often. The only problem now is that Molly may have to let the cat out of the bag about her chosen profession - and straitlaced Ben will definitely not approve.

Alex Gentry doesn't scare easily. Working as an undercover FBI agent in the biker bar he and his brothers co-own, he hangs with deadly criminals in order to gather information. Danger is just part of the family business. But one thing has him terrified: his attraction to Madison Parker. Madison is the cousin of Ramon Alonzo, son and second in command to a notorious drug lord Alex is trying to bust. Alex has befriended Ramon as part of his cover, and Madison has unknowingly become his informant. Falling for her could risk this case - and both their lives.

Clay LeGrand's heart shattered the day his wife, Frankie, disappeared. Had she run away? Been kidnapped? Or had she simply left him for another man? Two years later he's still asking the same burning questions when he comes home to find Frankie in his bed, as if nothing had ever happened.

A woman without a past.... After a tragic accident left her with no memory, Kate Alexander struggled to fit in with a husband and world that didn't feel right. She's had no reason to question what friends and family have told her, not until her husband is suddenly killed and she finds a photo of a young girl in his office. A girl who can't be anyone but a daughter Kate didn't know she had.

The facts are public knowledge: five people have been murdered. Each has died from a blow to the head. And the media-dubbed Prince Charming killer has left a “calling card” with each victim. A single thornless rose. But there’s another fact...one that the police haven’t made public. Something no one, except the killer and the police, should know. But Gabriel Donner does - and he can’t figure out why. All he knows is that he’s begun hearing voices, sleepwalking and dreaming vividly of the murders...as they happen.

Samantha is a stranger in her own life. Until the night she disappeared with her best friend Cassie, everyone said Sam had it all - popularity, wealth, and a dream boyfriend. Sam has resurfaced, but she has no recollection of who she is or what happened to her that night. As she tries to piece together her life from before, Sam realizes that it's one she no longer wants any part of. The old Sam took "mean girl" to a whole new level, and it's clear that she and Cassie were more like best enemies.

From Romance Writers of America comes a never-before-published collection of tales that showcases the breadth and complexity of the world's most popular genre of fiction!

Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the 16-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her "power" to sense dead bodies or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes the dead leave behind in the world . . . and the imprints that attach to their killers.

Anna Rossi lives by one simple rule: Don't get attached, don't get hurt. But Alec Flynn doesn’t play by the rules... Anna never takes on a massage client without screening him first, but the paycheck offered by billionaire Maxim Stein is too good to turn down. Stein is the richest man she's ever laid her hands on, and despite the risks, she trusts that she can take care of herself. After all, she's handled difficult clients in the past.

Psychiatrist Tess Ciccotelli has spent her entire career trying to help people, and now, just as her patients are making headway and her practice is thriving, everything is about to come crashing down. Someone is using her patients' deepest, darkest secrets against them, pushing them to commit suicide, and framing Tess in the process.

Baltimore city Homicide Detective JD Fitzpatrick has seen a lot of horrific violence, both as a cop and during his deployment in Afghanistan, but nothing like the trail of tortured bodies that are turning up throughout the city. He’s up against a brutal killer with a very personal vendetta. And now JD is beginning to suspect that his medical examiner may be shielding some crucial evidence linked to the case.

Officer Naomi Cranston was framed for stealing cocaine from the evidence locker and coerced—through threats to her young son—into not fighting the charges. After five years in prison, she has tried to put the ordeal behind her, but the crooks who framed her have returned, this time demanding she move drugs along with her flower shop’s deliveries. They threaten her son once again, but this time she’s not capitulating quietly. She hires Broussard Investigations to protect her and her son, to prove her innocence, and to put the real bad guys away.

The first victim is found in a snow-covered Philadelphia field. Detective Vito Ciccotelli enlists the aid of archaeologist Sophie Johannsen to determine exactly what lies beneath the frozen ground. Despite years of unearthing things long buried, nothing can prepare Sophie for the matrix of graves dug with chilling precision. The victims buried there haunt her. But the killer isn't done yet. He is cold and calculating, the master of a twisted game. Even with Vito and Sophie hot on his trail, he will not stop.

Eve Wilson's face was once scarred by a vicious assault. Terrified and ashamed, she escaped to the online realm, where she could choose the face she allowed people to see. Years later, her outer scars faded and inner scars buried, Eve has fought her way back to the real world and is determined to help others do the same. Now a graduate student moonlighting as a bartender, Eve researches the addictive powers of online communities. When her test subjects begin turning up dead as a result of apparent suicides, she doesn't know where to turn.