BE AFRAID by Mary Burton
NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR MARY BURTON RETURNS WITH THE MORGANS, NASHVILLE’S PREEMINENT LAW ENFORCEMENT FAMILY, IN HER LATEST SUSPENSE NOVEL, BE AFRAID, ON SALE APRIL 28TH
Detective Rick Morgan Moves to Homicide in This Story of a Family Destroyed,
a Killer at Large and the Little Girl Who Got Away
Praise for Mary Burton
“Burton’s trademark is providing the serial killer’s viewpoint without giving anything away, and by feeding the reader tiny details one at a time, she keeps the tension building.”
Publishers Weekly
“The modern-day Queen of Romantic Suspense.”
Book Reporter
BE AFRAID by Mary Burton
Kensington Books/Zebra Mass Market Original/Fiction
May 2015/On Sale 4-28-15/$7.99 ($8.99 Canada)
978-1420132137/eBook 9781420132144
Mary Burton brings readers back to Nashville, its Police Department and the city’s renowned law enforcement family, the Morgans, in her new novel of romance and suspense, BE AFRAID, a paperback original on sale April 28th. The Morgans were introduced in Burton’s recent book, the highly praised Cover Your Eyes, which became a USA Today bestseller in its first week on sale. Now, in BE AFRAID, the siblings, whose pursuit of justice is fueled by their late father’s heroic legacy, face a case of arson and a horrific murder, the start of a countdown to more killings.
Detective Rick Morgan is leading the investigation. Recovered from the gunshot wound that sidelined him and his canine partner, Tracker, he’s returned to duty, now in the Homicide Unit. When an unidentified child’s skeletonized body is found in Centennial Park, Rick and his partner, Boston transplant Jake Bishop, have few leads, forensic or otherwise, only a pink blanket, baby teeth indicating a not yet six-year-old victim and park maintenance records showing the body could have been placed there as long as three decades ago.
Hope of identifying the child, the first step in tracking down the killer, rests in the skilled hands of facial reconstructionist Jenna Thompson. On leave from the Baltimore P.D., she’s back in Nashville, the scene of her family’s murder. Five-year-old Jenna was spared. She was abducted and found nine days later in a locked closet, her jailor lying just feet away, dead of an overdose. Haunted by her few, vague memories of the events and, with the anniversary of the killings on the horizon, she’s searching for answers that have been out of reach for more than twenty years. Professionally and personally, Jenna’s determined to recreate the face of this other lost girl, the one who wasn’t saved.
Meanwhile, Rick is called to a West End home where an arsonist has left behind the charred remains of a second unidentified victim, shot and killed before the fire was set. As Rick investigates his two Jane Does, he also begins looking into Jenna’s past, curious as to why she’s returned to Nashville and wanting to learn more about this elusive, talented woman who has begun occupying his mind. Surprisingly, threads begin to emerge that may be joined not only to his two victims, but to Jenna’s own story.
As Rick gets closer to uncovering the motives behind the murders, the killer gets closer to his next victim and Jenna, learning more each day about her past, finds herself under attack and in fear for her life.
In BE AFRAID, Mary once again blends forensic science, police procedures, relationships and humankind’s capacity for evil in a suspenseful story focused upon the pursuit of truth and a demand for justice.
ABOUT MARY BURTON
New York Times and USA Today bestselling suspense author Mary Burton’s books have been compared to the works of Steig Larson*, Lisa Gardner**, and Lisa Jackson***. Her latest novels, Cover Your Eyes and Be Afraid are the first of four featuring the Morgans, Nashville’s preeminent law enforcement family. Her highly praised novels include Senseless, Merciless, Before She Dies, The Seventh Victim, No Escape, You’re Not Safe, I’m Watching You, Dead Ringer and Dying Scream.
Mary’s intensive research has led to interviews with law enforcement, seminars and classes, and the firing range. She is a graduate of the Richmond FBI Citizen’s Academy, the Henrico County Citizens Police Academy, has attended Sisters in Crime’s Forensic University and, annually, Writer’s Police Academy.
The author of twenty-six published novels and five novellas, Mary is a member of International Thriller Writers, Mystery Writers of America, Romance Writers of America and Sisters in Crime. She is also known for her highly regarded “Unraveling Romantic Suspense” workshop and her day-long program “Writing Your Book…The First Step.”
Her next novels featuring the Morgans are I’ll Never Let You Go, which will be published in November 2015 and 2016’s Vulnerable.
A Richmond native with family roots as deep as the nation’s, Mary has made her home there for most of her life. She also writes contemporary women’s fiction as Mary Ellen Taylor and her next novel under that name, At the Corner of King Street, will be published in May 2015.
*Publishers Weekly **Library Journal ***Library Journal
www.maryburton.com http://www.facebook.com/maryburtonfanpage www.kensingtonbooks.com
