International bestseller Alex Kava delivers a stunning prequel to her critically acclaimed Maggie O’Dell series. From her small Quantico office, Special Agent Maggie O'Dell has profiled serial killers using Poloraids, faxed copies and scraps of evidence provided by homicide detectives from across the country. She's gained a reputation for successfully profiling killers and solving crimes without ever stepping foot at a real crime scene. Then comes Albert Stucky, and nothing will ever be the same. Stucky is a sadistic madman who enjoys his twisted games as much as he enjoys the kill. Pieces of victims start showing up in takeout containers, strategically left for unsuspecting bystanders to find. Sometimes the body is dumped near by. Others are never found. Maggie is tasked with profiling the murders. Despite all her skills and talents nothing has prepared for this. For the first time in her career she’s seeing the gruesome crime scenes firsthand, because this madman has chosen the backwoods of Virginia as his killing grounds. When Stucky discovers an attractive female FBI agent is part of the task force to stop him, he begins to taunt Maggie. He leaves notes and bits and pieces as if they were clues for a morbid scavenger hunt. Each step of the way he’s daring Maggie to catch him if she can, all the while planning to make her his next prey. Let the chase begin.

A killer is watching . . . The brutal murders of three young boys paralyze the citizens of Platte City, Nebraska. What's worse is the grim realization that the man recently executed for the crimes was a copycat. When Sheriff Nick Morrelli is called to the scene of another grisly murder, it becomes clear that the real predator is still at large, waiting to kill again. Morreli understands the urgency of the case terrorizing his community, but it's the experienced eye of FBI criminal profiler Maggie O'Dell that pinpoints the true nature of the evil behind the killings—a revelation made all the more horrific when Morrelli's own nephew goes missing. Maggie understands something else: the killer is enjoying himself, relishing his ability to stay one step ahead of her, making this case more personal by the hour. Because out there, watching, is a killer with a heart of pure and perfect evil.

They dubbed him the Collector, so named for his ritual of collecting victims before disposing of them in the most heinous ways possible. FBI special agent Maggie O'Dell tracked him for two years, finally ending their game of cate and mouse. Now Albert Stucky has escaped from prison…and he is setting up a new game for Maggie O'Dell. Some say Maggie O'Dell has lost her edge as one of the FBI's best profilers. Since capturing Stucky, she has been walking a tightwire, battling nightmares and guilt over the victims she couldn't save. Now that Stucky is loose again, she's been pulled out of the field. But as Stucky's trail of victims leads closer and closer to Maggie, she is put back on the case under the supervision of Special Agent R. J. Tully. Together they race against the clock to hunt the killer, and Maggie finds herself pushed to the very edge. Has her desire to stop Albert Stucky become a matter of personal vengeance? Has she crossed the line? And has that been Stucky's goal all along—to make her into a monster?

FBI Special Agent Maggie O'Dell and her partner Tully investigate two cases—the murder of a senator's daughter in Washington, D.C., and a deadly shootout in Massachusetts, both of which are linked to Reverend Joseph Everett, who is dating Maggie's mother.

Experience a heart-pumping and thrilling tale of suspense! Originally published in THRILLER (2006),edited by #1 New York Times bestselling author James Patterson. In this engaging Thriller Short, New York Times bestselling writer Alex Kava sends her longtime character FBI profiler Maggie O’Dell on a road trip that does not go as planned. Maggie and her mom, Kathleen, decide to take a trip together, even though they really don’t get along. At a diner they encounter a man then later, back on the road, they see the same guy again. This time he sideswipes their car. The ensuing action sends the O’Dells down a hole that will make them wish they had stayed home

With only an old man afflicted with Alzheimer's as a witness, FBI Special Agent Maggie O'Dell is on the trail of a serial killer who targets people with physical disabilities, removing each victim's imperfections to keep as a twisted trophy.

When a monsignor is found knifed to death in a Nebraska airport restroom, FBI special agent Maggie O'Dell is called in to profile the ritualistic murder of a priest, the latest in a series of killings. Maggie soon discovers a disturbing Internet game that's popular among victims of abuse by Catholic priests. With this first real lead in the investigation, she wonders if the group has turned cyberspace justice into reality. Then Maggie gets a second lead—one that leaves her stunned. For the past four years she has been obsessed with finding Father Michael Keller, whose brutal acts against children continue to haunt her. Now, it seems, he has become a target. When Keller offers to help Maggie solve the ritual killings in exchange for protection, she decides to ally herself with the elusive child killer, stepping into a world of malevolence from which she may not return unscathed. Maggie knows the bargain is a necessary evil—one that may be made in blood.

Agent Maggie O'Dell and Assistant Director Cunningham believe they're responding to a threat made at Quantico. Instead they walk into a trap. Before they realize it, they've both been exposed to a killer who can strike at anyone, at any time, and no one can predict who might be next…until it's too late. The killer's tactics suggest he's an aficionado of criminal minds. He uses bits and pieces from those he admires: a phrase from the Beltway Snipers, a clue from the Unabomber, a delivery method similar to the Anthrax Killer. His weapon is a deadly virus, virtually invisible and totally unexpected. His victims appear to be random but, in fact, they are chosen with a revengeful precision. The vaccine is limited and untested. Maggie knows dangerous minds�from hauntingly perverse child predators to cunningly twisted serial killers. Now she faces a new opponent from inside an isolation ward at a biosafety containment hospital. Maggie must help Agent R. J. Tully find clues to catch the killer�while waiting to see if the deadly strain is already multiplying in her body. With every new exposure there's the potential for an epidemic. And Maggie knows she and Cunningham may not live long enough to discover who is the deadliest, most intelligent killer they've ever profiled.

On the busiest shopping day of the year, some idealistic college students believe they're about to carry out an elaborate media stunt at the largest mall in America. They think the jamming devices in their backpacks will disrupt stores' computer systems, causing delays and chaos. What they don't realize is that instead of jamming devices, their backpacks are stuffed with explosives, ready to be detonated by remote control and turning them into suicide bombers.Caught up in a political nightmare, battling a new interim director and still mourning the death of her boss A. D. Cunningham, FBI profiler Maggie O'Dell must put her own troubles aside and fly to Minnesota to help figure out what's behind this terrorist attack—a massacre that is all the more frightening because no group has claimed responsibility. The search becomes personal when a tip reveals that one of the college students involved is Patrick, Maggie's brother. Afraid and on the run, Patrick must decide if he can finally trust Maggie enough to help her unravel this horrifying nightmare. Sifting through the debris for answers, Maggie is joined by Nick Morrelli, who has recently taken a job with a national security company that oversees security for the mall. Although Maggie and Nick have investigated several cases together in the past, they've never investigated a relationship with each other. Nick would like to change that. When an informant confides in Maggie that there are other attacks on the secret agenda, she knows that she's running out of time. In less than twenty-four hours she'll need to figure out exactly when and where the second attack will take place, who to look for and how to keep her brother from becoming one of the casualties.

MURDER IN PARADISE: Pensacola Beach – sugar-white sands, emerald waves, sizzling hot temps served up with delicious fresh seafood – the perfect vacation spot. Except FBI profiler Maggie O’Dell isn’t on vacation. Her boss has sent her into the path of Hurricane Isaac to investigate a discarded fishing cooler that the Coast Guard pulled out of the Gulf of Mexico; a cooler filled with carefully wrapped body parts (DAMAGED, Doubleday). This short story, A BREATH OF HOT AIR, takes place in the middle of that investigation. Maggie O’Dell is awakened in her hotel room on Pensacola Beach by a frantic desk clerk. Housekeeping has made a gruesome discovery – a dead guest. Maggie teams up with Denver homicide detective, Glen Karst to determine if a murderer is on the loose. But Karst isn’t in Pensacola on vacation either. He’s on the track of a killer who escaped Colorado years ago. And it appears Karst may have found him. International bestselling author, Alex Kava and Patricia A. Bremmer, author of the Elusive Clue series, throw their sleuths together for the first time, searching for evidence before a Category 5 hurricane roars ashore. BONUS SECTION includes: an excerpt from Bremmer’s CLINICAL DEATH, an excerpt from Kava’s DAMAGED, character profiles of O’Dell and Karst, conversations with both authors, research trivia Kava’s essay on “Creating Maggie O’Dell.” Also included, is an exclusive look at the “lost first chapter” to Kava’s DAMAGED.

New York Times bestselling author Alex Kava joins the Doubleday list with her best novel yet. On Pensacola Beach, the Coast Guard prepares for a Category 5 hurricane that has entered the Gulf of Mexico. When the air crew patrols the waterways, they spot a huge fishing cooler about a mile offshore. Drug traffickers have been known to dump coolers with smuggled product to avoid detection and pay fishermen to retrieve them. But when the crew open this cooler, they’re shocked by what they find: body parts tightly wrapped in plastic. Though she is putting herself in the projected path of the hurricane, Special Agent Maggie O’Dell is sent to investigate. Eventually, she’s able to trace the torso in the cooler back to a man who mysteriously disappeared weeks earlier after a hurricane hit Port St. Lucie, Florida. Only Port St. Lucie is on the Atlantic side. How did his body end up six hundred miles away in the Gulf of Mexico? Cliffhanger chapters, behind-the-scenes forensic details, colorful characters, and satisfying twists have become the trademarks of Kava’s psychological thrillers. In Damaged, she ratchets up the suspense a notch by sending Maggie into the eye of an impending monster hurricane to track down a killer.

In "New York Times" bestselling author Alex Kava's new thriller, Special Agent Maggie O'Dell investigates the death of three teenagers, only to find herself in the middle of a conspiracy involving biological warfare. On a crisp fall evening in western Nebraska, what started as a group of kids filming their drug-fueled party ends in an explosive light show, leaving the victims apparently electrocuted, with odd scorch marks being the only evidence. While Maggie tries to make sense of the dif-ferent stories, sifting through what is real and what is hallu-cination, she realizes that the surviving teens are being targeted and systematically eliminated. Meanwhile on the East Coast, Maggie's FBI partner, R.J. Tully, and Army colonel Benjamin Platt are at the scene of a deadly outbreak, desperate to identify the pathogen that has infected children at a Virginia elementary school. Despite the miles that separate them, the two cases collide as Maggie, Tully, and Platt uncover secrets that were meant to stay hidden in the remote Midwest landscape.

"New York Times" bestselling author Alex Kava returns in a blaze of glory with a gripping, action-packed thriller featuring special agent Maggie O'Dell, who is leading the search for a serial arsonist whose crimes threaten Maggie dangerously close to home. When a building bursts into flames on a cold winter night in D.C., investigators see a resemblance to a string of recent fires in the area. There is one difference, however: This one has a human casualty. The local team insists they're looking for a young white male, suffering from an uncontrollable impulse to act out his anger or sexual aggression. But when special agent Maggie O'Dell is called in, everything she sees leads her to believe that this is the work of a calculating and controlled criminal. Jeffery Cole, a reporter looking for his big break, is also at the scene of the crime and decides to make Maggie part of his news piece, digging up aspects of her past that she would rather forget. Maggie's brother Patrick is also back in DC where he is working for a private firefighting company and is frequently called in as these fires continue to light up around the city. As the acts of arson become more brazen, Maggie's professional and personal worlds begin to collide dangerously. The killer may be closer than she imagines.

New York Times bestselling author Alex Kava returns with another action-packed thriller featuring special agent Maggie O'Dell, who is on the hunt for a "truck stop" serial killer. Tired travelers and weary truckers have stopped at rest areas on the nation's highways for decades to refuel, grab a bite, and maybe get some shut-eye, but one man's rest stop is another's hunting ground. For decades the defenseless, the weary, and the stranded have disappeared along the highways and byways, vanishing without a trace, but these seemingly unconnected incidents are no coincidence, and a madman stalks the freeways. When FBI special agent Maggie O'Dell and her partner, Tully, discover the remains of a young woman in a highway ditch, the one clue left behind is a map that will send Maggie and Tully on a frantic hunt crisscrossing the country to stop a madman before he kills again. As the body count rises and Maggie races against the clock to unmask the monster who's terrorizing the nation's highways, she turns to a former foe for help since he seems to know just what the killer's next move will be. As she gets closer to finding the killer, it becomes eerily clear that Maggie is the ultimate target.

One killer: A psychopath who flies under the radar, moving from city to city, preying on the lost and forgotten. Three investigators: Detective Stacy Killian from the New Orleans P.D., Nashville homicide lieutenant Taylor Jackson, and FBI profiler Maggie O'Dell—who witnessed some of the worst. And brought down some of the best. Will this one slip through their grasps, as he has slipped through grasps of so many, for so long? From three of today's most acclaimed thriller writers, SLICES OF NIGHT offers readers a sneak peek into the lives of three very different investigators, in three very different settings, as they hunt for a killer who's able to disappear into the night. Erica Spindler, Alex Kava and J.T. Ellison bring you face to face with their own unique brands of evil.

A massive storm system is unleashing its fury from Illinois to Florida - where it collides with a tropical disturbance and rages up the eastern seaboard. In the midst of the wind, rain and snow, Rockford Homicide Detective M.C. Riggio, FBI profiler Maggie O'Dell, and Nashville Homicide Lieutenant Taylor Jackson find themselves fighting not just the elements, but three diabolical killers ... Rockford, Illinois - A young co-ed's body is pulled from the Rock River, and Violent Crimes Bureau Detective Mary Catherine 'M.C.' Riggio and her partner, Kitt Lundgren, quickly learn that things are not always as they appear at first glance. Pensacola, Florida - FBI Agent Maggie O'Dell is about to do something she swore she'd never do again: climb into a helicopter. But a US Senator's family has gone missing aboard their houseboat, and Maggie and her partner, R.J. Tully, have been dispatched to accompany the rescue crew on their search. Soon, however, there is an even greater danger on board... Washington, D.C. - Metro Nashville Homicide Lieutenant Taylor Jackson has reluctantly agreed to take the place of her fiancé, FBI profiler John Baldwin, as a presenter at the annual Freedom Conference. But when two guests go missing, and one of them is found dead in his room, Taylor discovers an assassin amongst the spies - one with a deadly score to settle.