"He doesn't kill for thrills, for sex, or even for power.It's far more twisted than that.... "Cody McFadyen, acclaimed author of The Darker Side, The Face of Death," " and Shadow Man," "delivers this shocking new thriller that brings to light a psychopath unlike any we've ever seen--a killer who thrives in absolute darkness and doesn't derive pleasure from the kill. And only one woman has the ability to see him coming...even if it's already too late to stop her own murder. For FBI Special Agent Smoky Barrett, the wedding of one of their own was ...
Once, Special Agent Smoky Barrett hunted serial killers for the FBI. She was one of the best–until a madman terrorized her family, killed her husband and daughter, and left her face scarred and her soul brutalized. Turning the tables on the killer, Smoky shot him dead–but her life was shattered forever. Now Smoky dreams about picking up her weapon again. She dreams about placing the cold steel between her lips and pulling the trigger one last time. Because for a woman who’s lost everything, what is there left to lose?She’s about to ...
Full of horrific violence, this solid third thriller to feature scarred FBI agent Smoky Barrett (after The Face of Death) shows that McFadyen knows how to shock. When the FBI director calls Smoky to Washington, D.C., to inspect the body of a beautiful young woman stabbed to death aboard an airplane, Smoky can't figure out why she's been assigned a case so far outside her L.A. jurisdiction. But when Smoky learns that not only was the victim, Lisa Reid, the child of a powerful Democratic senator but also that she was a pre-op transsexual, Smoky realizes that this is more than a bizarre homicide. Smoky and her team soon get on the trail of the man they dub the Preacher, a sin collector who murders people to obtain their darkest secrets. Harboring secrets of her own, Smoky must stay one step ahead of the killer if she's to bring him down. The forays into the victims' minds to expose their secrets are unnecessary, but the formidable Smoky makes up for the occasional plot tangent.
Why did he leave her alive?They find the girl in the master bedroom, the bodies of the family around her. She's holding a gun to her head. And she will only talk to Smoky Barrett.Smoky is just starting to pick up the pieces of her own life. She knows what it's like to lose everyone you love. But her tragedy is nothing compared with this case. Because this isn't the first time it's happened. Sixteen-year-old Sarah Kingsley has lost her family before. Not once, but twice.Someone out there wants her to stare death in the face - again and again . . .
