Seeing Red

December 1, 2008
Crandall (Pitch Black
) opens this tense thriller with a 15-year flashback. When teen Ellis Greene's cousin Laura was kidnapped and assaulted, Ellis bravely defied family who wanted to blame Laura's impoverished would-be boyfriend, Nate, and testified against the real culprit, Hollis Alexander. Now out on parole, Hollis bribes journalist Wayne Carr into reinvestigating the case and attacks the emotionally fragile Greene family. Nate comes back to sleepy Belle Island, S.C., and is drawn to Ellis, now a schoolteacher who's unable to open up to her longtime boyfriend, Rory. Yet the chain of events is not as obvious as everyone once thought, and the discoveries Ellis and Nate stumble on are likely to get them killed. Crandall keeps the tale taut and twisty, drawing a persuasive picture of a family distorted by unhealed grief and unrevealed secrets.

June 26, 2017
Combustible relations between a strong man with seemingly serious flaws and a beautiful, smart woman with unexpected strengths elevate this novel of romantic suspense from bestseller Brown (Sting). TV journalist Kerra Bailey wants to interview Maj. Franklin Trapper, who became a hero when he led survivors to safety during the unsolved 1992 Pegasus Hotel bombing in Dallas, which killed 197 people, and who has since dropped out of public view. Kerra hopes to get the major’s estranged son, John, a former ATF agent, to help arrange a meeting, but he’s rude and uncooperative. She eventually succeeds in setting up an interview at the major’s home, but shortly beforehand, Franklin is fatally shot and Kerra barely manages to escape the two killers. While Sheriff Glenn Addison and the Texas Rangers search for clues, Kerra and John alternate between attraction and distrust as they desperately try to discover the who and the why behind the shooting. Competent plotting, sizzling romance, and some nifty surprises should satisfy Brown’s eager fans. Agent: Maria Carvainis, Maria Carvainis Agency.