Part of Series
A radicalized killer, a mute victim and a deputy US Marshal haunted by her dark past collide in the shattering conclusion to the Cady Maddix trilogy. An arrest warrant goes horribly wrong when Deputy US Marshal Cady Maddix is captured and held captive by a mentally unstable man. She manages to escape, but not before she’s beaten and tattooed with a violent scene from her captor's dark and damaged mind: a burning church and screaming children. Three weeks later, she’s back on the job and assigned a warrant for Frank Burgess, The Cremator. A corpse and human cremains have been found on the radical zealot’s property, and clues are in short supply. But Cady soon meets a survivor of the killer, a mute young woman who points them to a burnt-out rural church the man attended. Cady is shocked to discover the church is a duplicate of the one she bears on her back. Cady is determined to find the connection between former church members who’ve died bizarre deaths in recent years. But there's a killer who will stop at nothing to complete his deadly list, even if it means adding Cady as his next victim.
Author
The mother of five children, Kylie Brant claims she began writing to save her sanity. Plotting stories became her method of escape from the reality of constant ball games, chauffeuring kids, and refereeing "minor" disagreements between her perfect offspring. In 1992 she was elated to get a call from Silhouette offering to buy her second novel. Home with laryngitis at the time, she still managed to croak out agreement, and her career was born. A few months later she went on to sell Rancher's Choice, the first manuscript she’d written. Kylie is married to her high school sweetheart, and they make their home in Iowa. She insists that all her heroes are based on her husband of 23 years because he possesses that most heroic of make qualities—ironing skills. Those abilities come in handy, as she juggles a full time teaching job with writing and a family. Doing things the easy way has never held much appeal for this multi award-winning author. She graduated with high honors from the University of Northern Iowa. A graduation photo shows her in cap and gown holding her two sons, one aged 16 months and the other three weeks. She went on to obtain a teaching job working with learning-disabled children while completing her master’s degree at night and during summers. "There was a time in my life when I could imagine myself as a life-long student," she recalls. "I actually toyed with the idea of pursuing a doctorate. But instead, my life took a spin and I ended up writing romances. I’ve never regretted it!" Her family has since been completed by the birth of another son and a set of twins, a boy and a girl. Kylie’s books are regularly featured on bestseller lists such as Waldenbooks and B. Dalton Bookseller. With over a million copies of books in print, her novels have been distributed in 20 countries and released in seven languages. Family and friends are the main focus of Kylie’s life. When she isn’t writing or teaching, she enjoys reading and flower gardening. She loves traveling, preferring beach, ocean, and room service.
