For ten years, the charmingly disheveled veteran FBI Special Agent E.L. Pender has been investigating the apparently random disappearances of a dozen women across the country. The only detail the cases have in common is the strawberry blond color of the victims' hair, and the presence of a mystery man with whom they were last seen. Then, in Monterey, California, a routine traffic stop erupts into a scene of horrific violence. The local police are stunned by a disemboweled strawberry blond victim and an ingenious killer with multiple alternating personalities. Pender is convinced he has found his man, but before he can prove it, the suspect stages a cunning jailbreak and abducts his court-appointed psychiatrist, Irene Cogan. In a house on a secluded ridge in Oregon, Irene must navigate through the minefield of her captor's various egos—male and female, brilliant and naive, murderous and passive—all of whom are dominated by Max, a seductive killer who views her as both his prisoner and his salvation. Irene knows that to survive she must play along with Max's game of sexual perversion. Only then will she be able to strip back the layers to discover a chilling story of a shattered young boy—and all the girls he adored. A sexually charged thriller of extraordinary originality and page-turning suspense, The Girls He Adored moves furiously from the inner recesses of the psyche to its final, startling climax. Jonathan Nasaw brilliantly portrays two equally intense characters—a deviant killer and the expert who can unlock his darkest secrets—and introduces one of the most likable sleuths in recent fiction.

From Jonathan Nasaw, whose heart-stopping debut was hailed as "a superior thriller" ("The Washington Post") and "wickedly compelling" ("The Oregonian"), comes a new novel that takes readers into the depths of"Fear Itself" Is it possible to be scared to death? FBI Special Agent E. L. Pender thinks so—when a man afraid of heights falls nineteen stories to his death and a woman terrified of blood is found with her wrists slashed. Could it be that the apparent suicides are actually the work of a twisted psychopath? To stop him, Pender joins forces with Investigative Specialist Linda Abruzzi, and before long they find themselves facing their own worst terrors—and a madman who is as immune to fear as he is fascinated by it.

The brilliant author of Fear Itself pulls readers into an intricate web of ritual killings orchestrated by an evil pair of murderers who always manage to be one step ahead of the law. Former FBI Special Agent E.L. Pender may be retired, but he jumps at the chance to help solve a particularly gruesome series of crimes in the U.S. Virgin Islands. This is no ordinary case, seeing as the right hand on each body in the string of murders is missing. The police want to keep the existence of a serial killer under wraps; they hope to solve the crime before a stampede sets in. Meanwhile, Pender is convinced the killer must be the husband of the last victim and sets out to capture him—but he's only partly right. The husband is connected to the case, but the real murderers are a cunning husband-and-wife team of archeologists who believe that if they breathe in their victim's last breath they will live forever. Never before has Pender come up against such savvy, diabolical opponents. From one trail of dead ends to another, readers will feel Pender's fever to prevent more murders from occurring...and his sheer panic when he can't. Twenty-Seven Bones is that most quintessential of thrilling reads, providing a visceral experience of chills and excitement on every page.

A latest thriller featuring former FBI agent E. L. Pender finds him struggling through a morally ambiguous case involving imperiled women clients, a depraved perpetrator, and the unsettling price of justice. By the author of Twenty-Seven Bones. 60,000 first printing.

When troubled teen Luke Sweet is left orphaned and homeless, the court ships him off to a treatment program for juvenile delinquents in Humboldt County. Little Luke has a twisted past, though, and when several members of the group turn up dead, he quickly becomes the number one suspect. Agent Pender must track him down before anyone else gets hurt. But when clues about another psycho-killer surface, the case becomes much more dangerous-and deranged-than anyone thought possible.