FICTION
Sharon Dunn
The night was warm, the twilight inviting: middle-aged couples in pastel shirts, holding hands, strolled the old cracked sidewalks along the Mississippi.
— from Night prey, 1994
Most acclaimed
Broken trust
"The dramaticNew York Times-bestselling adventure in W.E.B. Griffin's Badge of Honor series about the Philadelphia police force. Having investigated his share of gruesome murders, Philadelphia Homicide Sergeant Matt Payne is beginning to think nothing can shock him - until the case of a young socialite's death lands on his desk. The Camilla Rose Morgan he'd known as a teenager was beautiful and brilliant - how was it possible she'd jumped to her death from her own balcony? Her brother tells Payne she'd tragically been battling a lifetime of mental demons, and there is plenty of evidence of it, but still
Night prey
1994
It was a very cold, very clear morning in the Carlos Avery game reserve - cold enough to preserve the body lying there, clear enough so the state investigator couldn't miss it. There was something familiar about the stab wounds, she thought - but the Minneapolis police dismissed her theories, and the city's new police chief has problems enough of her own. The cops are wary of her, the public thinks she's too political, the feminists think she's sold out. And this damn murder just won't go away. Caught in the middle, the chief turns to Lucas Davenport for help, and reluctantly, he agrees. Still recovering from his near-fatal wounds of the year before, trying for once in his life to settle down with one woman, Lucas has his own concerns, but something about this murder, and another like it - the body found in a dumpster this time - teases him, and the more he looks into them, the more he's sure the investigator is right. There is something disconcertingly familiar about the wounds not only in these two cases, but just maybe in several others as well. Somewhere out there lurks a killer of unusual skill and savagery. And if Lucas is right, he's just getting warmed up....
Dead Ringer
Brandon Ringer has a dead man's face. His grandfather, silver-screen heartthrob James Ringer, died tragically at twenty-one, and Brandon looks exactly like him. But that's where the resemblance ends. Brandon is unknown, unemployed, and up to his ears in back taxes after inheriting his grandparents' Hollywood mansion. He refuses to sell it-it's his last connection to his grandmother-so to raise the cash he needs, he joins a celebrity look-alike escort agency. Percy Charles is chronically ill, isolated, and lonely. His only company is his meddlesome caregiver and his collection of James Ringer memorabilia. When he finds "Jim Ringer" on Hollywood Doubles' website, he books an appointment, hoping to meet someone who shares his passion for his idol. Brandon? Not that person. But despite their differences, they connect, and Percy's fanboy love for James shows Brandon a side of his grandfather he never knew. Soon they want time together off the clock, but Percy is losing his battle for independence, and Brandon feels trapped in James's long shadow. Their struggle to love each other is the stuff of classic Hollywood. Too bad Brandon knows how those stories end.