Hey little kid, want some candy? Still on bereavement leave and dreading her upcoming birthday—a byproduct of the kidnapping and murder of her best friend in high school—Detective Charli Cross doesn’t feel much like celebrating. She’d much prefer being called in to investigate a reported homicide at a neighborhood playground. Until she realizes the young woman murdered was the nanny of the four-year-old son of a wealthy business mogul and a federal judge. And the boy is missing. Believing the motive to be about money or a past or future case, Charli and the rest of the Savannah Police Department anticipate a ransom demand. But none is forthcoming. When another murder and possible kidnapping occurs, with no similarities to the first victims, Charli fears they’re missing a critical piece of the puzzle. And without it, more children may be in harm’s way. As Halloween closes in, Charli grapples with solving an ever-growing number of homicides and kidnappings in the present...and deciphering the cryptic yet horrifying messages from a kidnapper from the past who’s haunted her for over a decade. Malevolent and nerve-wracking, Dark Mask is the eighth book in the Charli Cross series from best-selling author Mary Stone—guaranteed to make you: realize the scariest masks are those that hide evil/wonder, and fear, what’s hiding behind the masks we all wear/realize that sometimes a mask hides the devil in disguise/ realize we all hide behind masks. Some are just more sinister than others.