Murder Never Dies

When he stumbles across his only daughter's corpse in a deserted beachfront bungalow, devastated Ezekiel Cooper vows to find her murderer. What the former NYPD detective doesn't know is that there have been other victims. Women in Queens, Sarasota, Seattle. Women who seemingly had nothing in common, aside from a grisly fate at the hands of a chillingly clever stranger.

A computer programmer, a casting director, a call girl. The victims have nothing in common except the manner in which they spent their last night--wrapped in their own bed sheets in a bloody ritual of slow, agonizing death.

For NYPD Captain Thomas Horn, this adversary is unlike any he has met before. Methodical and highly skilled, the killer is always one step ahead, able to enter buildings without detection and leave no trace behind. To stop this deadly rampage, Horn must unlock the secrets of a cunning enemy who is saving his most shocking surprises for last. . .

"John Lutz knows how to make you shiver." --Harlan Coben

"Lutz ranks with such masters as Lawrence Block and Ed McBain." --St. Louis Post-Dispatch

The body of a young woman is found walled up in the basement of an old Edinburgh mansion. A prominent local figure is brutally murdered. An illegal immigrant cuts his throat in a city centre pub. As violence descends upon the city, Detective Inspector McLean must think the unthinkable. An ancient evil has been set free and only if he can accept that it exists will he be able to stop it.

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Short-Listed for the prestigious Crime Writers Association (CWA) Debut Dagger prize, Natural Causes is the first of an ongoing series featuring Edinburgh-based Detective Inspector Anthony McLean. In a world where demons are not supposed to exist, he is one of the few unlucky enough to be able to sense their presence.

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When Edinburgh police find the killer of a prominent city elder less than twenty-four hours after the crime, they are justifiably pleased. So the murderer has killed himself; that just saves the time and cost of a trial. But a second murder days later bears haunting similarities to the first, even though once more the murderer swiftly confesses and kills himself.

Detective Inspector Anthony McLean is investigating the discovery of a dead girl, walled up in the basement of an old Edinburgh mansion. She has been brutally murdered, her internal organs removed and placed around her in six preserving jars. The evidence suggests this all happened over sixty years ago, an attempt to re-enact an ancient ceremony that by trapping a demon in the dead girl’s body would supposedly confer immortality on the six men who took one of her organs each.

McLean’s grandmother – the woman who raised him after his parents were killed when he was a young boy – dies after months in a coma following a stroke. On top of this he has to investigate a series of unusual, violent suicides and a cat-burglar who targets the homes of the recently dead. But as another prominent Edinburgh businessman is killed, he begins to suspect that there may be a connection between the murders, the suicides and the ritual killing of the girl found in the basement. The same names keep cropping up. He just can’t find a rational explanation as to how that connection works.

As he digs deeper, and as the coincidences stack up, McLean is forced to consider an irrational explanation. Could there really be something evil stalking the city he has sworn to protect? And if so, how on earth can he hope to stop it?

It's so exciting to start over. Deidre Jones should know, since she's doing just that. The first step was getting out of the mental hospital in St. Louis. There were those who tried to stop her. . .so she had to make them understand: Deirdre gets what she wants. And she wants her ex-husband, David, back. He's got a new wife and a little boy. He's forgotten what he and Deirdre once shared. But it will be easy enough to remind him now that she's moved in upstairs. . .

For David, his time with Deirdre was a dark chapter he was glad to see end. Their marriage was based on dangerous, obsessive passion--and when David left, he never looked back. He'd hoped it was the same for Deirdre, but her "neighborly" behavior soon proves him wrong. She's doing her best to manipulate herself back into his life: through his child, through seduction. . .through murder. Because Deirdre will do anything to get what can never be hers--and now David is the only one who can stop her. . .

Eleanor figures somebody must have been really mad at Richard Olsen to bury that kitchen knife in his chest. But when Kevin Hurley--her ex-boyfriend and Timber Ridge's police chief--starts eyeing her as a prime suspect, Eleanor knows she better get to the bottom of things before the gossipy townspeople decide to stop ordering her specialty pies.

With her sassy and occasionally married sister Maddy by her side, Eleanor finds the list of suspects begins to outnumber the ingredients on the Slice's famed Smorgasbord Special pizza. Like Richard's eccentric sister, who appears out of nowhere to learn she's the heir to 100 grand . . . in what looks like dirty money. Richard worked for a shredding business--and it seems he read before he shred, and very well could've been a blackmailer. What about Richard's boss, who now stands to lose his shredding company? And then there's that steamy scented letter from none other than the mayor's wife . . .

But when someone takes a shot at Eleanor on a late-night delivery run, she and Maddy know time is running out. To find the killer--and keep the pizzas rolling out of A Slice of Delight's ovens--she'll need to put it all on the line and hope that her search for the truth doesn't end in an unmarked grave . . .

Someone is killing wealthy Manhattanites. One by one, the victims are discovered in luxurious high-rise apartments. Bound, gagged--brutally murdered in the "safety" of their own homes, by someone whose modus operandi is as horrifying as anything NYPD Detectives Ben Stack and Rica Lopez have ever seen.

As Stack and Lopez investigate the cruel deaths, they have no idea that they are being watched from the shadows--observed by a cunning murderer picking up all the clues necessary to stay one step ahead of the police while perfecting a deadly craft. And when a pattern slowly emerges, the detectives realize that the killings aren't the random acts of a maniac, but the personal campaign of someone bent on retribution. . .someone who's been watching closely and knows their case too well.

Someone whose vengeance will burn forever.