L.T. Vargus

Her body is broken. Wrapped in plastic. Dumped on the side of the road. She is the first. There will be more. The serial killer thriller that "refuses to let go until you've read the last sentence." The most recent body was discovered in the grease dumpster behind a Burger King. Dismembered. Shoved into two garbage bags and lowered into the murky oil. Now rookie agent Violet Darger gets the most important assignment of her career. She travels to the Midwest to face a killer unlike anything she's seen. Aggressive. Territorial. Deranged and driven. Another mutilated corpse was found next to a roller rink. A third in the gutter in a residential neighborhood. These bold displays of violence shock the rural community and rattle local law enforcement. Who could carry out such brutality? And why? Unfortunately for Agent Darger, there's little physical evidence to work with, and the only witnesses prove to be unreliable. The case seems hopeless. If she fails, more will die. He will kill again and again. The victims harbor dark secrets. The clues twist and writhe and refuse to keep still. And the killer watches the investigation on the nightly news, gleeful to relive the violence, knowing that he can't be stopped. A page-turning thriller packed with heart-stopping suspense. Fans of John Sandford, Jeffery Deaver, Karin Slaughter, and Lisa Gardner should get to know Violet Darger.

Down the beach, she can just make out the rusting hulk of the Ferris wheel through the dawn mist. The hairs prickle on her neck as she drags her focus back to the chestnut hair fanned out in the shallow water at her feet. To the grains of sand decorating the beautiful girl’s white cheeks like freckles. Private Detective Charlie Winters never thought she’d find herself back on Salem Island, but she’s forced home re-opening the wound that never healed: her sister was abducted from the small town when they were teenagers. For Charlie, her sister’s voice in her head—pushing her to risk everything to seek justice for the innocent—is a painful and constant reminder of what she lost. And never has that voice been louder than when a family friend comes to Charlie begging for help to find her missing daughter, Kara. Searching Kara’s messy, poster-covered bedroom, Charlie finds more questions than answers. Did Kara run away, or was she snatched? She’s clearly been keeping secrets from her family—but don’t all teenagers? A little black matchbook hidden in a jewelry box is Charlie’s only lead, but the seedy nightclub it comes from proves to be nothing but a dangerous dead end. Until Charlie is approached by a second distraught mother whose daughter has also vanished. Forced at every turn to relive the trauma she ran away from, Charlie’s blood runs cold when a girl’s body is discovered in the exact spot on the water’s edge where the last trace of her sister was found. It’s clear someone is taunting Charlie, but with other innocent girls’ lives at risk, she has no choice but to take the bait…

Two days. Fourteen dead. The next victim could be you. The first bullet punches through the windshield of an SUV. A head shot. The driver's death is instantaneous. And it's only the beginning. By the time Special Agent Violet Darger arrives in Atlanta, the city teeters toward panic. The vacant streets and restaurants paint an eerie picture. No one dares to venture out. A killer walks among them. A shadow. And the public cowers just the way he wants them to. A sniper along I-20 kills eight and causes a 36 car pileup. Brutal. Efficient. The next morning, the same individual stalks through a grocery store parking lot with a handgun. He takes out six innocent shoppers along with the store's front window before fleeing without a trace. Once more Agent Darger must identify with a murderer, must stare into the darkness to anticipate his next move. Putting herself in his head may be the only way to stop him. The longer she takes, the higher the death toll. He will kill again and again. But what hatred drives a man to such desperate, violent acts? And what price must one pay to invite that chaos inside themselves?

Love and danger. Sex and violence. The heart wants what the heart wants.When a couple on a crime spree slashes down the east coast into Florida, the perfect vacation goes horribly wrong. Armed robbery. Kidnapping. Murder. Innocent travelers get swept up in the violent wave.Desire runs from light to dark. Loving thoughts turn to dark fantasies.Ellie is a college student on spring break. After years living under the shadows of controlling parents, this wallflower is finally free — or trying to be.This vacation will be an inflection point in her life, she knows. Can she shake off the nerves and come out of her shell?Wes is a social media influencer. After years of drifting through the days, he’s looking for something different, something real, something that actually means something to him. Has he found that in Ellie?Sparks fly as soon as Wes and Ellie meet. Drinks in the bar turn to walks on the beach. It escalates from there.And that’s where the dead body comes in.Love pushes a person to extremes, shoves them into the darkest places.Detective Avery Stinson works the a dead body found in a ravine alongside a motel in the boonies. No marks on the body, but it all seems to be related to Jimmy and Scarlet, the modern day Bonnie and Clyde ripping through the county and leaving a path of destruction.Stinson follows the clues deeper and deeper into danger. The way ahead keeps distorting and rippling, morphing shadows that won’t hold still.And that’s where the shocking twist comes in.What happens when that passion delves too deeply, wants too greedily?Soon all the paths cross. Detective Stinson, Wes, and Ellie find themselves confronting a chaotic force that’s more complex than it first seems.Life and death hang in the balance. Not everyone will make it.Yeah, the heart wants what the heart wants. But how high of a price would you pay?

Shallow graves scar the desert landscape. A cemetery in the sand. Some of the lost are never found. Thousands of girls go missing every year in Las Vegas. Taken. Bought and sold. Or worse. And now the dead are calling. These lost girls summon FBI Profiler Violet Darger to Sin City -- a new case. There are fresh dead to sort through -- two bodies burned beyond recognition in the trunk of a sedan -- and there’s reason to believe that there are missing girls waiting to be saved. Rumors swirl that a legendary killer is responsible for these crimes. An escaped prisoner with a personal grudge against Darger -- one who wants her and her partner dead. One who disappeared for 20 years. But the desert is full of deadly secrets -- horrors waiting beneath the sand. If Darger finds the killer in time, the girls will live. If not…

Nestled in the autumn leaves, her hair tangled in thick brambles, the girl looks like she could be sleeping amongst the wild roses. But the trail of red across her delicate throat means this is a slumber she will never wake from… When a search party trawling Salem Island find a girl’s body curled on the damp earth, the hunt for missing waitress Emma Jacobis grinds to a devastating halt. The day before, Emma had come to Detective Charlie Winters convinced someone was watching her. In her trembling hand she held a sketch of herself sleeping peacefully with the stuffed rabbit she’d had since she was a child. On the back, scrawled in black ink: You will be mine… A box containing handwritten letters found under Emma’s bed is Charlie’s first lead. But the handwriting isn’t a match to the note left for Emma. With the help of her new assistant, a troubled girl eager to learn the ropes, Charlie’s only hope is to canvas the bar where Emma worked. There, she finds a woman with fear in her eyes and a terrifying story to tell about an encounter with a dangerous stranger. Is someone in this small town targeting vulnerable girls as prey? Certain she’s found a twisted killer’s hunting ground, and with time running out before he strikes again, Charlie has no choice but to use her new assistant as bait to lure him out into the open. But when a scream pierces through the night, will Charlie survive the consequences? She has to, or there’s no knowing how many more innocent girls will die…

Her body seems to hover above the forest floor. Arms and legs torn away from the trunk. A bloody stump mounted upright on a skewer. Not just a corpse. A warning. The most recent body was discovered in the woods just beyond a logging cabin. Dismembered. Put on display. Ghostly pale skin stark against the forest's green. Before that, two campers were found a few miles off. Cut apart. Impaled. Left in public places where they'd surely be found. The grisly crimes summon FBI profiler Violet Darger to a tiny island off the Alaskan coast -- 2,500 square miles of forested land populated by just 6,000 souls. Here, in the primordial wilderness, she'll face off with a shadowy killer unlike anything she's seen. Raging. Brutal. Elusive. He waits. Seethes. In the woods. In the dark. Always watching. He waits. Darger digs into the history of torso killers to try to understand the psychology behind the crimes. Finds a legacy of savagery dating back over a hundred years. Aggression beyond comprehension. A recurring phenomenon of human behavior that chills her. Human anatomy used to mark out territory. Corpses made totems to warn off others. It happens over and over again. Who could carry out such brutality? And why? Understanding the interior world, the motivations, of this type of killer will be the key to solving the case. The dark woods hold his secrets tightly. The terrain itself shielding him, giving him an edge over those in law enforcement seeking him. When a storm moves in, Darger finds herself in peril deep in his territory. Vulnerable. Exposed. Walking right into his trap. He waits.