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Law professor Natalie Greco's life is going according to plan, with a boyfriend handpicked by her father and tenure status only a review board away. Then, during a visit to a prison with her colleague Angus, a riot explodes. Rushing to the aid of a fatally wounded prison guard, Nat is privy to his last words—words that, unknown to Nat, can unlock the key to a dangerous conspiracy. Suddenly Nat, A Girl Who Always Plays By The Rules, finds threats around every curve: ruthless killers desperate to keep her from exposing their secret; police who are convinced she is responsible for a cold-blooded murder; and sexy Angus, whose mere presence makes her question her dedication to her long-term boyfriend. With her life on the line, her career in the balance, and her boyfriend on hold, Nat has to go into hiding to buy enough time to figure out the hidden secrets behind one man's last words.
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Author Miles Van Meter is on a book tour to promote his sensational bestseller Sleeping Beauty, a true-crime account of a deeply personal subject: the attack by a serial killer that left his twin sister, Casey, in a coma. Tonight the audience waits to hear Miles discuss recent developments in his sister's case -- unaware that pieces of this complex puzzle of violence, unknown even to the author, are about to be revealed. Six years earlier, life was much simpler for everyone involved, especially seventeen-year-old Ashley Spencer, a popular high school soccer star. Then one night an intruder entered Ashley's home and murdered her father and her best friend. Traumatized and suffering from a crippling sense of survivor guilt, Ashley is ready to give up on both soccer and life until help comes from an unexpected source -- a scholarship to the Oregon Academy, an elite private school, is extended to her by school dean Casey Van Meter. The school quickly becomes a haven for both Ashley and her mother, Terri. As Ashley regains her sense of self through the school's soccer program, Terri joins a writing group for adults led by Joshua Maxfield, a former literary wunderkind who has disappeared from the bestseller lists since his second book was panned by both critics and fans. Then tragedy strikes again and Ashley has to run for her life, unaware that the key to her survival is in the one book she's afraid to read -- Sleeping Beauty.
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#3 in the Grant County Series
Sara Linton, medical examiner in the small town of Heartsdale, GA, is called out to an apparent suicide on the local college campus, plunging her into a dark small town mystery. The mutilated body provides little in the way of clues—and the college authorities are eager to avoid a scandal—but for Sara and police chief Jeffrey Tolliver, things don't add up. Two more suspicious suicides follow, and a young woman is brutally attacked. For Sara, the violence strikes far too close to home. And as Jeffrey pursues the sadistic killer in a tense police procedural, he discovers that ex-police detective Lena Adams, now a security guard on campus, may be in possession of crucial information. But, bruised and angered by her expulsion from the force, Lena seems to be barely capable of protecting herself, let alone saving the next victim.
