May 2009

Dear Readers,

July 28, 2009… the paperback version of TWISTED will be released everywhere!

For those of you who may have missed its hardcover debut, TWISTED was my first opportunity to work with the FBI and its truly amazing people. I was able to study the Crisis Negotiation Unit during its specialized training exercises, and I based the character of my heroine, Sloane Burbank, on my up-close-and-personal interactions with real-life crisis negotiators. But in my trademark quest for creating exceptional characters, my work didn’t stop there. Derek Parker, the hero of TWISTED (and Sloane’s lover), was inspired by the FBI New York Field Office’s Asian Criminal Enterprise Task Force. And in order to create the most menacing (and realistic) psychopath, I was fortunate enough to enlist the help of the Behavioral Analysis Unit in Quantico. Did I mention talking to SWAT team members, Bomb Squad members, Hostage Rescue Team members, Evidence Response Team members and a multitude of other FBI, NYPD, and medical professionals whose personal experiences and expertise helped breathe life into every character of TWISTED?

TWISTED strikes at the heart of our deepest fears, where the hunter becomes the hunted and the stakes become one’s own life.

Let me set the stage for you. TWISTED's storyline evolves from inside the FBI and the life of one of its former special agents / hostage negotiators, who left the Bureau because of a near-death injury that prevents her from holding or shooting a gun. Unable to stay away, she works as an independent consultant, both with law enforcement and private corporations.

The case Sloane is drawn into is chilling. Women are mysteriously disappearing, never to be seen again. When Sloane's best friend from childhood turns out to be one of the victims, Sloane is brought in by the desperate family. But her involvement is unwanted, particularly by the special agent in charge of the case— her then ex-lover Derek Parker.

Derek has no time and little interest in offering Sloane his cooperation. He’s been reassigned to the FBI New York Field Office’s C-6, the Asian Criminal Enterprise Task Force. With prostitutes being murdered and Chinatown on the verge of erupting into gang warfare, a year-old missing person’s case seems low priority. And the unresolved feelings between Derek and Sloane are a complication that neither of them needs, yet neither of them is able to shake.

Before they can act on these feelings, it becomes frighteningly clear that they are dealing with a psychopath, and a more heinous crime spree than they ever imagined—and that Sloane is the Unsub’s ultimate target.

To read an excerpt of TWISTED, click here.

September 8, 2009… the hardcover version of DRAWN in BLOOD will be released everywhere!

I just couldn’t help it. My readers clamored for it. I clamored for it. Sloane and Derek were so compelling in TWISTED that I had to have them return in DRAWN in BLOOD, trying to solve a new and too-close-to-home crime— one that puts Sloane’s family at risk.

In writing DRAWN in BLOOD, I entered a whole new sector of the fascinating world of the FBI— the world of art crime. I had the rare opportunity to work with one of the country’s most renowned art crime investigators, former FBI Special Agent Robert Wittman, the recently retired Senior Investigator and Founder of the FBI's Art Crime Team. (Retired?  Ha!  Bob's idea of retirement is to start his own company for the security, protection and recovery of art investments, and travelling all over the globe doing it!) Bob is like James Bond and Indiana Jones rolled into one.

In DRAWN in BLOOD, a gang of art thieves have stolen priceless masterpieces from famous museums in Europe, leaving a trail of blood in their wake. But when their crime spree moves to the U.S., a decades-old secret resurfaces, endangering Sloane's art dealer father, and claiming the lives of his oldest friends. The killer is closing in on him. Sloane is racing the clock to keep him alive. Derek's own investigation is in direct conflict with Sloane's.  And suddenly, she finds herself in foreign territory: alone, facing escalating personal danger, and hunting a moving target in a world where memories are long and loyalties are drawn in blood.

To read an excerpt of DRAWN IN BLOOD, click here.

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Happy Reading! I hope you enjoy each and  every page of TWISTED and DRAWN in BLOOD.

Best,

Andrea