Play Dead: (Byrne & Balzano 4)

Description

A serial killer is on the loose. No one is safe. The fourth thriller in the gripping Byrne and Balzano series by the Sunday Times bestseller. In each soul, a secret ... Philadelphia homicide detectives Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano's first assignment from the Cold Case files is the brutal murder of a young runaway. The lifeless body of Caitlin O'Riordan was found carefully posed in a glass display case in the desolate Philadelphia Badlands but, as Byrne and Balzano rapidly discover, she was just the first pawn in the killer's twisted game... A mysterious phone call leads them on a scavenger hunt for a second victim. This time a young girl has been dismembered, her body parts left in three boxes in the basement of a deserted house. More clues lead to other victims and, as the body count rises, it becomes clear that there is a serial killer on the loose, hell-bent on completing the 'performance' of a lifetime. As more runaways vanish, Byrne and Balzano come to realize that the homicidal mastermind plans to complete seven depraved tricks in his dark and dangerous magic act. With Balzano increasingly obsessed by a case that haunts her, and Byrne struggling with a loss of his own, the stakes are mounting. But this is one game they can't afford to lose...

Richard Montanari is the Sunday Times top ten bestselling author of The Echo Man, The Devil's Garden, Play Dead, The Rosary Girls, The Skin Gods and Broken Angels, as well as the internationally acclaimed thrillers Kiss of Evil, Don't Look Now (previously published as Deviant Way) and The Violet Hour. He lives in Cleveland, Ohio. To find out more about Richard Montanari visit his website at www.richardmontanari.com

[A] tale of mystery, death and good versus evil * Press Association * Montanari's superior thriller...[is] a welcome change from the gore typical of the serial killer subgenre. Likewise, Byrne and Balzano possess a psychological depth all too rare in such fiction * Publishers Weekly *