Seduction and murder. Adam Traywick may be capable of both. In this celebrated gothic romance, will Miranda be the next victim of Barrett's Hill? When her father's will sends strong-willed, irreverent Miranda to the New England estate of nearby Barrett's Hill to live under the guardianship of her elder cousin—the sour Reverend Smathers—and his scheming family, trouble quickly brews. Two decades earlier a murder took place on Barrett's Hill, and the suspects are few. Miranda's spirited investigation raises the fear of public scandal among her hypocritical relatives—the Reverend's alcoholic wife and viciously manipulative daughter—especially since the suspects are the Reverend, his toadying assistant Fathimore, Miranda's own father, and the darkly irresistible Adam Traywick. Adam turns his masterful charms on Miranda, and she falls in love. Yet as it becomes clear she's provoked the killer's survival instincts, with herself his target, she can't help wondering if Adam is seducing her or planning her murder.
Author
Anne Stuart is a grandmaster of the genre, winner of Romance Writers of America's prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award, survivor of more than thirty-five years in the romance business, and still just keeps getting better. Her first novel was Barrett's Hill, a gothic romance published by Ballantine in 1974 when Anne had just turned 25. Since then she's written more gothics, regencies, romantic suspense, romantic adventure, series romance, suspense, historical romance, paranormal and mainstream contemporary romance for publishers such as Doubleday, Harlequin, Silhouette, Avon, Zebra, St. Martins Press, Berkley, Dell, Pocket Books and Fawcett. She’s won numerous awards, appeared on most bestseller lists, and speaks all over the country. Her general outrageousness has gotten her on Entertainment Tonight, as well as in Vogue, People, USA Today, Women’s Day and countless other national newspapers and magazines. When she’s not traveling, she’s at home in Northern Vermont with her luscious husband of thirty-six years, an empty nest, three cats, four sewing machines, and one Springer Spaniel, and when she’s not working she’s watching movies, listening to rock and roll (preferably Japanese) and spending far too much time quilting. Anne Stuart also writes as Kristina Douglas.
