Authors: Martin J. Smith
Tags: #Fiction, #Thrillers, #Suspense, #Psychological, #FICTION/Thrillers
Shadow Image (33 page)
MARTIN J. SMITH is a veteran journalist, author, and magazine editor who has won more than 50 newspaper and magazine awards. A former senior editor of the
Los Angeles Times Magazine
, he currently is editor-in-chief of
Orange Coast
magazine in Orange County, Calif. His first three crime novels were nominated for prestigious crime fiction awardsâthe Edgar, Barry, and Anthony. He also is the author of three nonfiction books, including
The Wild Duck Chase,
Poplorica: A Popular History of the Fads, Mavericks, Inventions, and Lore That Shaped Modern America
, and
Oops: 20 Life Lessons From the Fiascoes That Shaped America
.
Pittsburgh, 1986: The city is gripped in a panic as a maniac slips poison onto pharmacy shelves. All of the evidence has pointed to Ron Corbett, but shoddy policework let Corbett off the hook, left the crime unsolved.
Ten years later, it's happening again. This time, for the most personal of reasons, Detective Downing has made it his mission to see Corbett behind bars. He enlists the help of Jim Christensen, a psychologist who specializes in memory, to interview Corbett's son, now a young man with a painful past and problems of his own. Does the boy remember his father slipping a needle into pill containers? Has he blocked memories of a horrific crime spree enacted in his own house? As Christiansen explores the boy's memory and Downing grows more obsessive investigating the case, both men fear that the killings now may not be as random as they once thought, and that unlocking memories may draw them too close to a vicious predator.
Eight years ago, Brenna Kennedy defended Carmen DellaVecchio: a loner, a freak, a man accused of a heinous crime. She lost the case, and DellaVecchio was sent to prison for the brutal rape and near murder of Teresa Harnett, a Pittsburgh cop.
But DNA evidence has cast doubt on DellaVecchio's guilt. While he waits for a new trial, he is free, and Brenna still believes that he is an innocent man. But if DellaVecchio is innocent, then that means there's a guilty sociopath out there, and all that's standing in his way from getting away with a grisly crime is one meddling lawyerâ¦
Jim Christiansen has the key to unlock memories. Brilliant and compassionate, he's dedicated his career to studying the effects of memory loss, including on victims of trauma. When Teresa Harnett asks him to help her remember that terrible night, he resists. Ethically, it's unsound, as Christensen and Kennedy have been together for six years. But Christensen is drawn into the case, and soon everyone involved is caught in the web of a man who will kill to stay freeâ¦
The Disappeared Girl
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