Joanna Flynn was lucky to be alive. But when the doctors told her she would suffer no lasting effects from the near-fatal accident, they were wrong. For that night the nightmares about Caroline began. As the dreams become more torturous, Joanna sets out to investigate this mysterious woman–a journey that takes her three thousand miles from home to a picturesque town where everybody seems to have a conflicting opinion of the woman who haunts her dreams. All too soon, Joanna realizes that unraveling the mystery of Caroline means uncovering secrets someone may have killed to hide. And that someone appears all too willing to kill again.

C.J. Adams had been teased enough about her seeming lack of interest in the opposite sex. On a ski trip with her five best friends, she impulsively embraced a handsome stranger, pretending they were secret lovers–and the delighted lawyer who joined in her impetuous charade seized the moment to deepen the kiss. Astonished at his reaction, C.J. tried to nip their romance in the bud, but she found herself nipping at his neck instead. She had met her match in a man who could answer her witty remarks with clever ripostes of his own and a lover whose caresses aroused in her a passionate need she’d never suspected. Had destiny somehow tossed them together?

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When Robin Stuart is pulled from the stormy seas, she can only cling desperately to the arms that surround her. Robin has been too close to danger not to recognize it again: in the eyes of the rugged, fearless man. Michael Siran is an expert at playing dangerous games. But from the moment the terrified beauty with the piercing gaze sets foot on his ship, he’s touched by a true sense of purpose. Robin insists on remaining by his side – even though she is asking the world of a man who trusts no one. Michael is determined to give her everything – if he can only make her understand that even heroes are human, and that her courage runs as deep as his love.

New York Times bestselling author Kay Hooper is back with a brand new thrilling paranormal suspense novel in the Bishop/Special Crimes Unit series.

The small town of Salem has been quiet for months–or so Bishop and his elite Special Crimes Unit believe. But then Hollis Templeton and Diana Hayes receive a warning in Diana’s eerie “gray time” between the world of the living and the realm of the dead that a twisted killer is stalking Salem, bent on destroying in the most bloody and horrifying way possible the five families that founded the town.

The stakes are high, especially for new friends Nellie Cavendish and Finn Deverell, both members of the Five, and this time Bishop and his wife Miranda will lead the team to hunt down a vicious killer and uncover a dark and ancient curse haunting Salem.

Dear Reader,
 
As most of you probably know by now, I began my career writing series, or category, romance. I am very proud of my roots in romance, and consider myself lucky to have served a solid writing apprenticeship in a genre that allowed me to combine various elements in pursuit of a good story.

Because love stories can be told against the backdrop of history or within the framework of mystery, suspense, fantasy, paranormal, and even horror plots, I was able to exercise those writing muscles over time, undoubtedly leading to the suspense/thriller novels I’m writing today. Romance is no longer the central focus of what I write, but it remains at the heart of all my work.

So I give you here a romantic story with an edge of suspense, first published in 1989. Lara Callahan has come to the small town of Pinewood to start over–and to hide. Devon Shane has come looking for answers. When the wary woman and mysterious man take roles in a community theater production, they risk far more than the judgment of an audience. They risk their very lives.

Because both of them have secrets. Both are living a lie. And both know the first rule of survival is Tell no one. It’s a rule they’ll have to break.

Kay Hooper

A town shrouded in the occult. An evil that lurks in the dark. The SCU returns in a hair-raising novel from New York Times bestselling author Kay Hooper.

Nellie Cavendish has very good reasons to seek out her roots–and not only because she has no memory of her mother, and hardly knew the father who left her upbringing to paid caregivers. In the eight years since her twenty-first birthday, very odd things have begun to happen. Crows gather near her wherever she goes, electronics short out when she touches them, and when she’s upset, really upset, it storms. At first, she chalked up the unusual happenings to coincidence, but that explanation doesn’t begin to cover the vivid nightmares that torment her. She can no longer pretend to ignore them. She has to find out the truth. And the only starting point she has is a mysterious letter from her father, delivered ten years after his death, insisting that she go to a town called Salem and risk her life to stop some unnamed evil–before her thirtieth birthday.

As a longtime member of the FBI’s Special Crimes Unit, Grayson Sheridan has learned not to be surprised by the unusual and the macabre–but Salem is different. Evidence of satanic activities and the disappearance of three strangers to the town are what brought Salem to the attention of the SCU, and when Gray arrives to find his undercover partner has vanished, he knows that whatever’s hiding in the seemingly peaceful town is deadly. But what actually hides in the shadows and secrets of Salem is unlike anything the agents have ever encountered.

Accident victim Faith Parker has done what her doctors feared she never would: awakened from the coma that held her prisoner for weeks. But she has no memory of the crash that nearly killed her-or the life that led up to it. Nor does she remember journalist Dinah Leighton, the steadfast friend who visited her in the hospital…until she disappeared without a trace. Now as Faith begins to regain her strength, she’s shocked by intimate dreams of a man she doesn’t recognize and tortured by visions of violence that feel painfully real. Something inexplicable ties her lost memories to Dinah’s chilling fate. But even as Faith tries to understand the connection and reach out to save Dinah, death is stalking both women. And one of them will not escape its lethal grasp. FBI agent Noah Bishop has a rare gift for seeing what others do not, a gift that helps him solve the most puzzling cases. Now, read more of his electrifying adventures in two stand-alone tales of psychic suspense.

In the isolated sanctuary of her Montana ranch, no one could hurt Brooke Kennedy, whose gift had led her to build walls of ice around her heart. One person had stormed those barricades: her friend Pepper, who embraced the world and meddled in the lives of those she loved. Now Brooke needed help, and Pepper sent troubleshooter Cody Nash to melt the barriers Brooke had raised. A golden man whose tender persuasion opened the door to the maze that was Brooke’s soul, Cody dared to face the fire-breathing dragons that haunted her mind. But first, Brooke had to believe that he loved her–enough to catch her when she fell off the edge of the world.

What she was doing was immoral, illegal, and could easily get her killed–but Troy Bennett wasn’t apologizing to anyone. She’d been caught red-handed in the middle of a felony and she couldn’t have picked a more dangerous man to be holding her fate in his hands. Not that straight-laced businessman Dallas Cameron intended to turn her over to the law. He had far more devious intentions for the sexy cat burglar. He planned to uncover the secrets of this complex and mysterious woman who broke into homes and yet had connections with Interpol, who rejected his interest but seduced him at every turn.

With her fallen-angel smile, Serena Jameson looked like a cross between a temptress and a teenager, but she could be gently ruthless when it came to getting Brian Ashford to make his move! The handsome industrialist was determined to play Galahad and protect her from danger–in the form of rakish playboy Joshua Long. But when Serena pleaded with Brian to teach her how to seduce a man, she ignited a primitive heat that shattered his control–and hers. A captive of her own desires, could Serena escape the tangles of her bewitchingly woven web?

Travis Foxx’s breath caught as Saber Duncan mesmerized her audience, her voice smoldering with passion and filled with an odd, defiant yearning that stripped her heart naked. Could she possibly be the same girl singer whose records two years earlier had left him untouched, unimpressed? She had disappeared for a year and returned a fascinating enigmatic woman whose mysterious odyssey seemed to have taken her from fragile flower to part jungle cat, part siren. Filled with an obsession to know her secrets, to penetrate the veils she’d wrapped around her life, Travis pushed onward down a trail that seemed to have no end. Was he chasing a dream that even he could never name?

Kay Hooper’s flair for storytelling and her broad mastery of genre are apparent in her electrifying novels. Her many works include modern and historical romances, fantasies, mysteries, gothic novels, and, like Out of the Shadows, suspense thrillers featuring psychic ability. The small, friendly town of Gladstone, Tennessee seems the ideal place to raise a family-until two teenagers are found tortured to death. Sheriff Miranda Knight will do anything to make her small town safe again, even if it means calling in Noah Bishop, the FBI’s psychic profiler. The last time she and Noah combined their psychic powers, she was almost destroyed. Now she must learn to trust him again, or she will most certainly die at the hands of the monster who’s stalking her town. Narrator C.J. Critt breathes life into the beautiful psychic sheriff with paranormal powers and transforms this exciting blend of romance, mystery, and suspense into an exciting listening experience.

After asking the wrong people the wrong questions, Shannon Brown barely escapes with her life – and crosses paths with a handsome outlaw who cannot resist a lady in distress. Moved by the troubled stranger, Derek Ross agrees to help Shannon elude her pursuers. But the ferocity of his desire for Shannon stuns him, and mystifies her. She’s known so much hurt in matters of the heart – how can Derek be any different? Drawn into a shadowy world of danger and deception, Shannon is reborn in the arms of a man who lives by no one’s rules. Derek’s voice calms her fears and lowers her guard, making Shannon long to hear another heartbeat beside her own. But trusting Derek might cost Shannon deeply, as she wonders whether this outlaw is hers to keep or merely an intoxicating illusion.

Sarah Cavell is a beautiful, brilliant cryptographer with the uncanny ability to crack any code. But her most daunting challenge may be reading the true feelings of her new “husband,” Rafferty Lewis, the secretive federal agent to whom she’s just been assigned. Sent on a perilous mission to a Caribbean nation teetering on the brink of revolution, the two must go undercover as husband and wife to make contact with a shadowy informant passing on cryptic messages that could trap a terrorist.

Pilot, sharpshooter, and accomplished yachtsman, Rafferty prides himself on being the epitome of coolness under pressure. But in the aftermath of a marital tragedy that exposed his vulnerable core, the prospect of pantomiming intimacy with a woman of Sarah’s intoxicating allure has him unnerved, to say the least–and that could prove deadly for both of them. Dodging danger at every turn even as passion’s magnet draws them closer to each other, these two make-believe lovers will learn that the heart is a puzzle they can only solve together.

Marry me! Josh Long insisted, but elusive woman of mystery Raven Anderson denied the electrifying attraction she felt when he pulled her into his embrace. Seductive but never truly seduced, Raven knew how to ignite a fire, but had never been burned herself–until Josh’s fierce hunger brought her ecstatic surrender in his arms. Were his money, power, and passion enough to protect his mercurial lover from shadows that threatened her life?

Banner Clairmont hated the idea of her beloved Lyonsgate Plantation being sold, even to dashing Rory Stewart, who seemed to know so much about her. But as they toured the grounds before that evening’s costume ball, she sensed the house welcoming the intruder, sharing its secrets. Rory was fascinated by the estate, and even more by his lovely guide. But who, he wondered aloud, were the early guests–the soldiers in rebel uniform, the ladies in crinolines–and why was Banner so shocked when he pointed them out? That evening he knew he must understand the puzzle of the mansion’s past before he could love its mistress. Then at midnight, destiny joined their hands–for didn’t family legend say that whoever led the final waltz would always live at Lyonsgate?

New York Times best-selling author Kay Hooper serves up another chilling psychological thriller that will have listeners on the edge of their seats. Beautiful, successful, blonde women are being murdered in a small, peaceful town where such horrible atrocities are not supposed to happen. Police Chief Rafe Sullivan knows he has to find the killer fast, but he doesn’t know where to begin. Enter FBI profiler Isabel Adams. She’s tough, fearless, and determined. Not to mention psychic-and blonde.

Ruthless, charismatic, and devastatingly handsome, Andres Sereno rules the small South American island of Kadeira with an iron first – and he has abducted the irresistible Sara Marsh to keep her out of harm’s way. Of course, Andres has ulterior motives: He is determined to convince Sara that she cannot live without him. Blindsided by a sudden storm with no safe harbor in sight, Sara has no choice but to embrace the fierce warrior who holds her captive. Though Andres tries to shield her from his violent side, Sara knows that she’s tempting fate. Before risking everything, Sara must walk through fire and discover the strength within herself. Only then can she surrender to the primitive force of their desire.

From best-selling author Kay Hooper comes a thrilling tale with a paranormal bent and a touch of romance. Cassie Neill has a powerful but troubling gift. She can see inside the minds of serial killers as they are planning their crimes. Tormented by her ability, she takes refuge in a secluded North Carolina town. But there’s no escaping her visions, and when a body surfaces just where she predicted, Cassie is suddenly a suspect.

Time was supposed to obscure memories, but when Kyle Griffon saw the sunlight glinting off Lucas Kendrick’s hair, she knew she’d never stopped waiting for him. Ten years before, he’d awakened her woman’s passion, and when he left without a word, her quicksilver laughter had turned to anger, and her rebel’s heart to a wild flirtation with danger–anything to forget the pain of losing him. Now he was back, and he needed her help in a desperate plan–but did she dare revive the flame of desire that once had burned her? Lucas had never stopped loving Kyle, wanting her, but could she forgive a man who made mistakes, who was not the perfect hero of her girlhood dreams? Once she’d trusted him enough to answer his savage demands with wild elation, echoing his fierce need with her own. Now could she show him she was strong enough to hold him in the fortress of her love?

Josie Douglas came to the isolated country cottage with her research, a good alibi, and a gun. She hoped that she’d have enough time to unravel the facts behind the tragedy that, years before, had shattered her life. Instead, she found herself in a house haunted by its own dark history. A series of strange coincidences, a ghostly visitor, and a mysterious brass key provide Josie with tantalizing clues to a mystery that keeps her guessing at every turn. Also keeping her guessing is Marc Westbrook, a landlord who embodies the meaning of the term drop-dead handsome. Soon, she’ll have to trust him with the secret that drove her into seclusion, a secret that has already cost the life of one man she loved.

At first he heard only her voice in the darkness. Then, when the lights clicked on, Noah Thorne knew he was in for something just a little wild! The revelation that interior designer Alex Bennet had been a lion tamer for four years both delighted him and put him on guard. But it was the siren look in her green eyes that promised to cage his heart forever. Alex was a woman whose past held more than one delicious secret, more than one unusual gift. And when their nights became filled with shockingly vivid dreams of the two of them in other times and places, they wondered if Fate was the ringmaster guiding their passions.

Seattle police sketch artist Maggie Barnes has an extraordinary gift. She listens as traumatized crime victims describe their ordeals – and then uses those horrifying recollections to draw dead-on sketches of the assailants. Some cops think Maggie is telepathic, that she can actually enter the victims’ minds. Only Maggie knows the truth behind her rare talent … and she isn’t telling. But her secret may be exposed when a madman seizes Seattle in his terrifying grip. He abducts women and blinds them, leaving them barely alive. The police have one hope: the lone victim who might recover her sight. But they don’t know that Maggie has her own dark connection to the monster – an eerie link that may stretch back to a string of unsolved murders. To stop the escalating terror, Maggie will have to push her abilities to the breaking point – even if it means confronting a predator whose powers seem to have no bounds….

All is not as it seems as a daring undercover agent and an unconventional Southern belle mix business with pleasure in this classic story of romance and suspense from New York Times bestselling author Kay Hooper. Kelsey has come to the idyllic southern town of Pinnacle to investigate a shady company called Meditron, which has a ruthless way of getting what it wants – or so claims the desperate caller who contacts the FBI. The locals won’t talk about Meditron. But Kelsey is an expert interrogator, prepared to use his seductive charms to his every advantage. He just hadn’t counted on falling for the beautiful witness at the center of his investigation. Elizabeth Conner is too proud to ask for any sort of assistance. She never needed help raising her three willful younger sisters. But now her family is in serious trouble, and Elizabeth’s stubborn independence is a deadly liability. And then Kelsey sweeps her up – and into his arms – like a force of nature, promising to protect Elizabeth and her sisters a relentl

New York Times best-selling author of Out of the Shadows and Touching Evil, Kay Hooper delivers a thrilling paranormal mystery with Whisper of Evil. Forced by a sense of duty and a need to reconcile the past, a woman with psychic powers faces a far greater challenge than she’d ever expected. A stalker? In Silence? These are the questions on Nell Gallagher’s mind as she drives through the empty streets of her hometown. Three successful, respected members of the community-each harboring a dark secret-have fallen to a killer’s murderous vengence. When Nell teams up with former high school sweetheart Max Tanner, they realize that the very skills that drove her away from Silence have become the town’s only hope for salvation. But even as she pieces together the puzzle of the killer’s imagination, he may already be so close that she won’t even see her own death coming. This exciting book will hold new and longtime Hooper fans in a spell of suspense. Every gripping chapter is filled with white-knuckled tension, as the killer preys upon his victim’s ulnerabilities and lures them in for the kill. Alyssa Bresnahan’s electrifying narration will have listeners everywhere fearful of the dark.

In this beloved romance by master storyteller Kay Hooper, a woman who experiences car trouble in the Rocky Mountains gets more than she bargained for when she stumbles upon an investigator’s stakeout operation. Teddy Tyler is taken captive by handsome, rugged Zach Steele–and is not to be released until his investigation into a gang of gunrunners is complete. But Teddy quickly discovers that she doesn’t much mind being detained by Zach. She’s powerfully attracted to him, and she won’t rest until he gives in to his own attraction.