Synopses & Reviews
An unidentified skull...a trail of terrifying secrets...and a woman whose talented hands hold the truth behind the most shocking deception of our time...
From Iris Johansen, the nationally acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of And Then You Die and The Ugly Duckling, comes her most electrifying novel yet, a relentless buildup of suspense from the first page to the riveting conclusion.
Forensic sculptor Eve Duncan has a rare--and bittersweet--gift. Her unique ability to reconstruct the identity of the long dead from their skulls has helped bring closure to parents of missing children. For Eve, whose own daughter was murdered and her body never found, the job is a way of coming to terms with her personal nightmare.
When she is approached by billionaire magnate John Logan to reconstruct the face of an adult murder victim, only his promise of a sizable charitable contribution persuades her to accept. It's a simple bargain, yet it's the most dangerous one she'll ever make.
The warning signs are clear. There is the specially equipped lab Eve is taken to, in a country inn turned high-tech security fortress in rural Virginia. Surveillance cameras monitor her every move. The telephones are tapped. And then there is Logan himself--by turns ruthless, charming, and desperate.
But it's too late for Eve to walk out. The skull has begun to reveal its shocking identity, trapping her in a frightening web of murder and deceit. To free herself, she has no choice but to expose that identity and to trust Logan, the man who put her life in danger, a man who may see her as an expendable pawn.
Already she has made very powerful enemies. Their only agenda is covering up the truth, and their method of choice is cold-blooded killing. To them, Eve needs to be silenced forever. Because the secret of the skull must remain in the grave--no matter who gets buried with it.
Synopsis
It seems like an ordinary skull -- but it isn't. And for forensic sculptor Eve Duncan, this discovery will draw her into a frightening odyssey of greed, manipulation, and violence.
It started simply enough, with businessman John Logan offering her another routine job of recreating a face from a skull. Hesitant at first, then persuaded to accept, Eve leaves the safety of her home office for Logan's makeshift lab, never expecting that the face she will construct using a computer, plasticine, and clay will make her the target of an audacious killer. For that face belongs to a man who's supposed to be alive, a man of vital importance to the nation.
As Eve struggles to puzzle out the truth, she and Logan will become entangled in a dangerous web of lies and deceit, with threads that may extend all the way to the highest office in the land.
About the Author
Iris Johansen, who has more than eight million copies of her books in print, has won many awards for her achievements in writing. The bestselling author of And Then You Die, Long After Midnight, and The Ugly Duckling lives near Atlanta, Georgia, where she is currently at work on a new novel.