Hard Truth

Truth Book 2

by Mariah Stewart

Ballantine Books

September 27, 2005

Available in: Paperback, Audio, e-Book

Read an Excerpt

Hard Truth
by Mariah Stewart

IN MATTERS OF CRIME, THERE ARE MANY VERSIONS OF THE TRUTH

Two children who mysteriously disappeared twenty-one years ago are the last thing on Lorna Stiles's mind when she returns to her Pennsylvania hometown to sell the old family property in the wake of her mother's passing. But along with her memories, Lorna finds the fields where she grew up yield something utterly chilling.

All those years ago, when nine-year-old Melinda Eagan vanished on her birthday, her foulmouthed older brother, Jason, quickly became the lone suspect. Yet when he went missing, too, the case turned cold. But Jason, it seems, never got far: His bones have been moldering on the Stiles' land for more than two decades. As far as the local police are concerned, the book is closed on Melinda's murder---and Jason's death is justice served. But Lorna refuses to let the dead rest uneasily. When Jason's mother is accused of his murder, Lorna turns to private eye T. J. Dawson to dig up the dirt of the past and see what lies beneath. Only there's someone out there who hasn't forgotten---and who won't be the least bit forgiving about being exposed as a killer.



Mariah Stewart's Bio

Mariah Stewart is the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and USA Today bestselling author of forty-one novels, three novellas, and several short stories, and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal. She has been a RITA finalist in romantic suspense and the recipient of the Award of Excellence for contemporary romance, a RIO Award for excellence in women’s fiction, and has received a Reviewers Choice Award from Romantic Times Magazine. A three-time winner of the Golden Leaf Award presented by the New Jersey Romance Writers, Stewart was awarded their Lifetime Achievement Award and is in their Hall of Fame. She is the author of several bestselling contemporary romance series, including the Chesapeake Diaries; the Hudson Sisters, a women’s fiction trilogy, and several series of suspense novels (the Dead series, the Mercy Street series, among others), and has been published by Random House and Simon and Schuster. She is currently working on a new novel of women’s fiction. A native of Hightstown, NJ, Mariah lives in Chester County, PA, with her husband of forty years and two rowdy rescue dogs. The mother of two adult daughters, she’s the happy grandmother of five.