An aspiring artist. A high-school senior. A stripper. Three women who seemed to have nothing in common except their sudden disappearance. But one man knew them all. Wealthy, privileged Craig Thornton even claimed to love them. And for that, they paid the ultimate price. When Adrianna Barrington receives an anniversary card from her husband Craig, she assumes it's some crackpot's idea of a joke. After all, Craig is dead. But then come phone calls, flowers, messages...all reminding her how much Craig misses her. While Adrianna begins to doubt her sanity, grisly remains are found on the Thornton estate. Detective Gage Hudson is convinced the bodies are linked to Craig. But the biggest shocks are yet to come. A psychopath has taken up his chilling work again, each death a prelude to the moment when she is under his control at last. And the only way for Gage and Adrianna to stop him is to uncover the truth about a family's dark past - and a twisted love that someone will kill for, again and again...
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.
