Beside each body, he leaves a simple charm bearing a woman's name. Ruth, Martha, Judith. The victims were strangers to each other, but they have been chosen with the utmost care. Each bears a striking resemblance to Kendall Shaw, a local anchorwoman...each brutally strangled by a madman whose obsession will never end...In front of the cameras, Kendall is the picture of stylish confidence. But at night she's haunted by nightmares in which she is young, alone, and filled with fear. Are these memories - or omens? Despite warnings from Richard Detective Jacob Warwick, Kendall can't stop investigating the recent string of murders. She knows she holds the key to catching an obsessed psychopath - if he doesn't get to her first...The deeper Kendall and Jacob dig into the victims' backgrounds, the more terrifying the discoveries. For from the shadows of the past, a legacy of evil has resurfaced. Every murder, every moment has been leading to Kendall. And this time, nothing will stop the killer making her his final victim...
A Central Virginia native whose family's Richmond roots run as deep as the nation's, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Mary Burton graduated from Virginia's Hollins University and began a career in marketing. After a decade she left her job and began writing. Her first novel, a romance, was published in 2000.
Following that book, Burton wrote sixteen novels and novellas for Harlequin and Silhouette before entering the dark world of multiple murderers and their motives with Senseless, Merciless, Dying Scream, Dead Ringer and I'm Watching You, as well as her novella Christmas Past, which appears in the 2008 New York Times bestselling holiday anthology Silver Bells.
Her commitment to realism has led to eye-opening interviews with law enforcement, to forensic seminars and to the firing range. She is a graduate of the Henrico County Citizens Police Academy and the Richmond FBI Citizen's Academy, and has participated in Sisters in Crime's Forensic University program. Recently, she attended the Writers Police Academy in Jamestown, North Carolina. There she attended seminars on autopsies, undercover work and the motives behind murder.
Mary Burton is an avid baker and an accomplished cook. When not writing, researching or baking, Mary practices yoga, enjoys her miniature dachshunds Buddy and Bella, volunteers at the University of Richmond's Culinary Arts Program, attends professional conferences, and visits with readers and booksellers.
