In the lazy days of summer, a merciless heat wave is the biggest story in Washington, D.C. But the weather is knocked off the front pages when a young woman is found strangled to death. A note left behind reads Her sins are forgiven her. Two more victims soon follow, and suddenly every headline is devoted to the killer the press has dubbed "the Priest." When the police ask top-notch psychiatrist Dr. Tess Court to help with their investigation, she comes up with a disturbing portrait of a twisted soul. Detective Ben Paris doesn't give a damn about the killer's psyche. What he can't easily dismiss is Tess. Tall, dark, and good-looking, Ben has a legendary reputation with women, but the coolly elegant Tess doesn't react to him like other women he's known and he finds the challenge enticing.

NOW THE NETFLIX FILM BRAZEN, STARRING ALYSSA MILANO From #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts comes a novel that explores the dangerous side of desire, when a mystery writer in search of a little peace and quiet instead finds herself ensnared in the world of a real-life serial killer whose craving for murder stops at nothing . . . and no one. After a demanding book tour, superstar mystery novelist Grace McCabe decides to visit her sister, Kathleen, who’s embroiled in a custody battle after a bitter divorce. Arriving in D.C., Grace is shocked to find Kathleen living in a run-down neighborhood and, hoping to afford a hotshot lawyer, supplementing her meager teacher’s salary by moonlighting as a phone sex operator. According to Kathleen, Fantasy, Inc., guarantees its employees ironclad anonymity. But Grace has her doubts—which are confirmed one horrifying cherry-blossom-scented night when one of Fantasy, Inc.’s operators is murdered. As Grace is drawn to help solve the crime, her life turns into a scene from one of her own books. Yet as one of her biggest fans, investigator Ed Jackson, warns her: This isn’t fiction. Real people die—and Grace could be next. For she’s hoping to trap a killer more twisted than anything she could imagine. And not even Ed may be able to protect her from a rendezvous with lust and death.