With Open Eyes - An Original Short Story

One woman held captive for decades…

Another one freed by the truth…

Forensic sculptor Eve Duncan knows what it's like to be haunted by the past.  For years after her daughter Bonnie was stolen from her, she fought for closure.  But now as she's striving to begin anew, she can't shake the feeling that something terrible is about to happen—or maybe already has.  When her mother, Sandra, asks for help in finding a missing friend named Beth Avery, Eve is sure that she's hiding something.  It’s odd that Sandra would get involved at all, and the fact that she adamantly refuses to go to the police for help reinforces Eve’s suspicions that something is very wrong.

Eve learns that Beth has been locked away in a mental hospital for years, which makes it even harder to understand how she could have disappeared. As Sandra reluctantly reveals small pieces of the truth about Beth's identity, Eve is shocked to discover that their lives are strangely entwined, and Beth's disappearance now puts them all in grave danger.

 Desperate, Eve enlists a secret weapon to pick up Beth's trail:  rogue profiler, Kendra Michaels. With an uncanny ability to detect clues and solve puzzles, Kendra begins to uncover the bizarre circumstances of Beth's escape from what should have been the safety of her hospital room. Beth is on the run, and as her mind clears--detoxing from the drugs that have held her prisoner--she begins to see the threads of a twisted plot within the powerful Avery family, threatening to destroy Beth and anyone else who might jeopardize the high-stakes game that is already in play. 

In Lisa Gardner’s first-ever short story following thirteen bestselling novels, The 7th Month takes readers between the books and into a day in the life of Boston Detective D. D. Warren.

In her seventh month of pregnancy, D.D. should be taking it easy. Instead, she accepts a small consulting role on the set of a serial killer film shooting in Boston. D.D. figures she’ll be useful to someone for at least one night, serving as a police expert and making a little extra money in the bargain.

It seems like a simple task—until the previous film consultant, a former Boston cop, is found beaten to death. Suddenly D.D.’s date with Hollywood gets serious. Extremely pregnant, on the trail of a killer, and surrounded by a hundred and four murder suspects in the middle of a graveyard, D.D. must quickly unravel a tangled web of lies. As another cast member is attacked, D.D. realizes that like it or not, her priorities have changed—and her last desperate hope is that she can catch a killer before she and her unborn baby face mortal danger.

Packed with the suspenseful storytelling that has turned Gardner’s novels into New York Times bestsellers, The 7th Month reveals new insights into a beloved series heroine.

Includes an exclusive early look at Catch Me, coming February 7, 2012.

Others may dread the chill of winter, but he relishes it. The way the frigid water preserves his victims, the feel of their icy skin beneath his fingers. . . And soon the world will see their beauty--and his vengeance.

Afraid To Run

The town of Grizzly Falls is on edge in the wake of a serial killer, and Detective Selena Alvarez is no exception. That case was solved, but a new nightmare is about to unfold. There are two victims so far--their bodies found frozen solid and deliberately displayed. Both are women she knew. And each wears a piece of Selena's jewelry. . .

Afraid To Die

Selena's partner, Detective Regan Pescoli, and the entire department are on the case, as is P.I. Dylan O'Keefe--a man Selena got too close to once before. But this killer already knows too much about Selena's secret terror, her flaws, and the past she's tried to outrun. And soon he'll show her that she has every reason to be afraid. . .