Mostly Murder (40 page)

Linda Ladd
is the bestselling author of over a dozen novels.
Remember Murder
marks her exciting return to the Claire Morgan series. Linda makes her home in Missouri, where she is at work on her next novel featuring Claire Morgan.

 

Visit her on the web at
www.lindaladd.com
.

After moving from Los Angeles to Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, homicide detective Claire Morgan has at last adjusted to the peaceful rhythms of rural life. Until a grisly celebrity murder at an ultra-exclusive “wellness” resort shatters a quiet summer morning . . .

 

One of Dr. Nicholas Black's high-profile clients, a beautiful young soap opera star, has been found dead, taped to a chair at a fully set table . . . submerged in the lake. Back in L.A., Claire investigated the rich, famous, and the deadly—but she never expected the problems of the privileged to follow her to this sleepy small town. Just as she never imagined crossing the line with her prime suspect . . .

 

Immersed in the case, Claire finds herself drawn to the charismatic doctor, spending more and more time in his company—and in his bed. Now, to catch a killer, Claire will have to enter the darkest recesses of the human mind. But is Black leading her there to help her . . . or luring her ever deeper into a madman's grip?

Missouri detective Claire Morgan is eager to get back to work after recuperating from injuries sustained on her last job. But the missing persons case that welcomes her home in the dead of winter soon turns more twisted and treacherous than Lake of the Ozarks' icy mountain roads . . .

 

The man's body is found suspended from a tree overlooking a local school. He is bleeding from the head, still alive—but not for long. Someone wanted Professor Simon Classon to suffer as much as possible before he died, making sure the victim had a perfect view of his colleagues and students on the campus below as he succumbed to the slow-working poison in his veins . . .

 

Frigid temperatures and punishing snows only make the investigation more difficult. And then the death threats begin—unnerving incidents orchestrated to send Claire a deadly message. Now, as she edges closer to the truth, Claire risks becoming entangled in a maniac's web—and the stuff of her own worst nightmares . . .

Hilde Swensen is a beauty pageant queen with a face to die for and a body to kill for. But by the time Detective Claire Morgan finds her in a shower stall—posed like a grotesquely grinning doll—Hilde is anything but pretty. She's the victim of a sick, deranged killer. And she won't be the last . . .

 

Brianna Swensen is the beauty queen's sister—and the girlfriend of Claire's partner, Bud. She tells Claire that Hilde had plenty of enemies, including a creepy stalker, an abusive ex-boyfriend, and a slew of jealous competitors. But what she doesn't say is that they both shared a dark disturbing secret. A secret that refuses to die . . .

 

From the after-hours parties of a sinister funeral home to the underworld vendettas of the Miami mob, Claire follows the trail with her lover Nicholas Black, a psychiatrist with secrets of his own. But it's not until she uncovers evidence of unspeakable acts of depravity that Claire realizes she's just become a diabolical killer's next target . . .

His doctors are the best in the world, his father one of the most powerful men in the state. But they couldn't stop Mikey from succumbing to his darkest demons—the ones inside his head. The ones who told him it was time to end it all.

 

It should have been an open-and-shut case, especially since detective Claire Morgan's lover, Dr. Nicholas Black, recognized Mikey as a troubled former patient. Then Claire finds another body in Mikey's home. Curled inside an oven, charred beyond recognition, the method of murder mind-boggling . . .

 

Claire's only lead is a beaded bracelet, believed to ward off the “evil eye,” around each victim's wrist. But by the time she discovers what the dead were afraid of, she's trapped in a mind game of her own—with a brilliant sadistic killer. And this time, there's a method to the madness . . .

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Copyright © 2013 Linda Ladd

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

 

PUBLISHER'S NOTE

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

 

eKENSINGTON is a trademark of the Kensington Publishing Corp.
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First electronic edition: December 2013

ISBN: 978-1-6018-3051-7

 

ISBN-13: 978-1-60183-137-8
ISBN-10: 1-60183-137-4