Dead Run
by Erica Spindler

"I'm in trouble, Liz, I've uncovered something . . . They're watching . . . I'm going for help tonight and will contact you as soon as I'm able." That panicked message on her answering machine was the last time Liz Ames heard from her sister Rachel. The police believe Rachel Howard, pastor of Paradise Christian Church in Key West, Florida, suffered an emotional breakdown and ran off. Her behavior had become increasingly bizarre, her sermons dark, frightening. Besides, women didn't meet untimely ends on the island paradise. The police quickly closed the case. But Liz is convinced her sister's disappearance wasn't self- imposed. Fleeing a shattered marriage and a career on hold, Liz moves to Key West to prove her suspicions, her only clues her sister's cryptic phone message and a page from Rachel's journal bearing the image of a strange, horned flower. Liz isn't on the island twenty-four hours when a successful banker, a man with everything to live for, jumps to his death from his bedroom window. Then a teenage girl whom Rachel was counseling is found brutally murdered in the garden of Paradise Christian Church. The ritualistic style of the killing is hauntingly similar to that used by the notorious "New Testament" serial killer -- now on death row. Could the teenager's murder be the work of a copycat killer? And what was the girl's relationship to Rachel? The police have logical explanations for it all. They don't believe these events are linked. Everywhere Liz turns, she encounters disbelief and suspicion. Only Rick Wells is willing to listen. Wells once had a promising career as a Miami cop . . . until his life fell apart. He missed a chance to work the "New Testament" investigation, but he knows the case and believes its similarities to what's happening in Key West are too great to ignore. Together they struggle to uncover the unspeakable evil at the heart of this seemingly idyllic community. But each step closer to the truth brings more questions -- and more death. For sinister forces lurk within paradise -- and no one seems able to escape, not even at a . . . dead run. In Dead Run, Erica Spindler proves once again that she is a master at delivering chilling shockers that explore the sometimes twisted nature of the human psyche. Prepare to be hooked until the final word.

Other Books by Erica Spindler

Slices of Night

Bone Cold

Cause for Alarm

Erica Spindler's Bio

Erica is a USAToday, New York Times extended, Waldenbooks and amazon.com bestseller. In 2002, her novel BONE COLD won the prestigious Daphne du Maurier Award for excellence. An RWA honor roll member, she received a Kiss of Death award for her novel FORBIDDEN FRUIT and is a three- time RITA award finalist. In 1999 Publishers Weekly awarded the audio version of her novel SHOCKING PINK a Listen-Up award, naming it one of the best audio mystery books of 1998. Erica and her husband--a man she describes as funny, handsome and way too sassy--met in art school and have been together ever since. They have two sons, born nine and a half years apart. Erica makes her home just outside New Orleans, Louisiana, although she originally hailed from Rockford, Illinois.