This is one case that has haunted Jonathan Stride for thirty years. When he was a teenager, in the summer after his junior year of high school, he fell in love with Cindy Starr, the girl who would become his wife. But that same summer, Cindy s sister, Laura, was brutally murdered. The police suspected a vagrant of committing the crime, but Stride and Cindy were both convinced that the killer was someone close to Laura. Thirty years later, Laura s best friend, Tish Verdure, returns to Duluth to write a book about Laura s death. Tish knows secrets about Cindy that leave Stride questioning his entire past.
Brian Freeman is an international bestselling author of psychological suspense novels featuring detectives Jonathan Stride and Serena Dial. His books have been sold in 46 countries and 19 languages and have appeared as Main Selections in the Literary Guild and the Book of the Month Club. His settings in the bleak, frozen landscape of Duluth, Minnesota, and his deeply complex characters, have drawn comparisons to Swedish noir.
Freeman's fifth novel THE BURYING PLACE was a finalist for Best Novel of 2010 in the International Thriller Writer Awards. He was recognized along with fellow nominees Michael Connelly, Jeffery Deaver, Mo Hayder, and John Sandford. His debut thriller, IMMORAL, won the Macavity Award for Best First Novel and was a nominee for the Edgar, Dagger, Anthony, and Barry Awards. It was named International Book of the Month by book clubs around the world, a distinction shared with authors such as Harlan Coben and Karin Slaughter. His novel STRIPPED was named one of the top 10 mysteries of 2006 by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
His third novel STALKED was released in February 2008. "Freeman just keeps outdoing himself with each book," said the starred review in Library Journal. Publishers Weekly similarly gave a starred review to Freeman's fourth novel, IN THE DARK (2009), calling it his best book yet, "harrowing and heartrending."
His fifth novel THE BURYING PLACE arrived in bookstores in 2010. Upon its release in the UK, London's Daily Mail called Freeman the discovery of the year in crime fiction and said of the book: "Fleshed-out characters, high tension and terrifying twists put Freeman up there with Harlan Coben in the psychological crime stratosphere."
His newest novel and first stand-alone is THE BONE HOUSE, released in 2011.
In addition to his suspense series, Freeman is also the co-author of THE AGENCY (2009) under the pen name "Ally O'Brien." THE AGENCY is Janet Evanovich meets The Devil Wears Prada, a light and sexy satire of the publishing industry that received favorable reviews in People Magazine and Entertainment Weekly, among others.
Freeman was born in Chicago and grew up in San Mateo, California, before moving to Minnesota. You can write to him at brian@bfreemanbooks.com and find him on Facebook by clicking the link at his web site (www.bfreemanbooks.com).
