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Killer Takes All

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Overview

When a friend is found brutally murdered in her new Orleans apartment, former homicide detective Stacy Killian has reason to believe her death is related to the cultish fantasy role -- playing game White Rabbit. The game is dark, violent --' and addictive

As a former member of the Dallas police force, Stacy was exposed to more than her share of the horrors of crime. Moving to New Orleans was her attempt to pursue a quieter life. But her friend's murder plunges her back into the role that she fled -- especially after she meets Spencer Malone, the homicide detective assigned to the murder case. Stacy doubts the overconfident rookie is up to the task and vows to track down the killer herself.

Her investigation draws her into the privileged circle of White Rabbi's brilliant creator, Leo Noble., a man with many dark secrets in his past -- a man whose life has the same frightening surreal quality of the game he invented.

As the bodies mount and the game is taken to the next level, Stacy and Spencer are forced to work together. Soon they are trapped in the terrifying world of a game gone made where Leo Noble and all the people around him are suspect, cryptic notes foretell the next victim and no one #151;no one -- is safe.

Because White Rabbit is more than a game. It's more real than life and death. And anyone can die before the final moment when the game is over#133;and killer takes all.

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Author Information

Bio of Erica Spindler

Catching a summer cold changed Erica Spindler's life forever. Up until that fateful malady, Erica planned on being an artist. She had studied for that profession, earning both a BFA and MFA in the visual arts. Then in June of 1982, she stopped at a local drugstore to pick up cold tablets and tissues; the cashier dropped a free romance novel into her bag. She hadn't read a romance in years but once home, with nothing to do but sniffle and watch daytime TV, she picked that romance up -- and was immediately hooked. For the next six months she read every romance she could get her hands on. Sometime during those months, she decided to try to write one herself. The moment she put pen to paper, Erica knew she had found her true calling. Since that day, Erica has published more than twenty novels. Her titles have been published all over the world and Red was turned into both a wildly popular graphic novel and daytime drama in Japan. Critics have dubbed her stories as "thrill-packed, page turners, white knuckle rides, and edge-of-your-seat whodunits" and The Times Picayune praised 2003's In Silence, calling it "Creepy and compelling; a real page turner." Erica is a USA TODAY, New York Times extended, Waldenbooks and amazon.com bestseller. In 2002, her novel Bone Cold won the prestigious Daphne du Maurier Award for excellence. An RWA honor roll member, she received a Kiss of Death award for her novel Forbidden Fruit and is a three-time RITA award finalist. In 1999 Publishers Weekly awarded the audio version of her novel Shocking Pink a Listen-Up award, naming it one of the best audio mystery books of 1998. Praised by booksellers as "The best suspense novel I've ever read" and "A perfect 10 out of 10," Erica's 2004 release See Jane Die is the story of a woman who must face her darkest fears when her husband becomes the prime suspect in the brutal murders of two women. Erica and her husband -- a man she describes as funny, handsome and way too sassy -- met in art school and have been together ever since. They have two sons, born nine and a half years apart. Erica makes her home in the New Orleans area, although she originally hailed from Illinois. Erica came to her present home in much the same way she came to writing -- fate intervened. She and her husband, then college students, traveled to New Orleans to see the King Tut exhibit at the New Orleans Museum of Art. Without advance tickets, they had a choice: wait in line all day or spend the day sightseeing. They chose the latter and fell head-over-heels in love with the city. Erica is currently at work on her next thriller for MIRA Books.

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Additional Info

Imprint

Harlequin Enterprises

Filesize

987.77 KB

Number of Pages

480

eBook ISBN

1552544524

Excerpt from: Killer Takes All by Erica Spindler

CHAPTER 1
Monday, February 28, 2005
1:30 a.m.
New Orleans, Louisiana

Stacy Killian opened her eyes, fully awake. The sound that had awakened her came again.

Pop. Pop.

Gunshots.

She sat up and, in one fluid movement, swung her legs over the side of the bed and went for the Glock .40 that waited in the drawer of her nightstand. Ten years of police work had conditioned her to react to that particular sound without hesitation.

Stacy checked the gun's magazine, crossed to the window and inched aside the drape. The moon illuminated the deserted yard. Several spindly trees, dilapidated swing set, dog pen minus Caesar, her neighbor Cassie's Labrador retriever puppy.

No sound. No movement.

Padding silently on bare feet, Stacy made her way out of the bedroom, into the adjoining study, weapon out. She rented one half of a hundred-year-old shotgun double, a style of home made popular in the era before air-conditioning.

Stacy swung left, then right, taking in every detail: the stacks of research books for the paper she was writing on Shelley's "Mont Blanc," her open laptop computer, the half-drunk bottle of cheap red wine. The shadows. Their depth, stillness.

As she expected, each room in the house proved a repeat of the last. The sound that had awakened her had not come from inside her apartment.

She reached the front door, eased it open and stepped out onto the front porch. The sagging wood creaked beneath her feet, the only sound on the otherwise deserted street. She shivered as the wet, chilly night enveloped her.

The neighborhood appeared to be asleep. Few lights shone from windows or porches. Stacy scanned the street. She noted several unfamiliar vehicles, which wasn't unusual for an area inhabited mostly by university students. All the vehicles appeared empty.

Stacy stood in the shadow of her front door, listening to the silence. Suddenly, from nearby, came the sound of a trash barrel toppling over. Laughter followed. Kids, she realized. Practicing the urban equivalent of cow tipping.

She frowned. Could that have been the sound that awakened her? Altered by sleep and instincts she no longer trusted?

A year ago such a thought wouldn't have crossed her mind. But a year ago she'd been a cop, a homicide detective with the Dallas P.D. She'd yet to endure the betrayal that had not only stripped her of her confidence but had galvanized her to act on her growing dissatisfaction with her life and job.

Stacy gripped the Glock firmly. She was already freezing her ass off, she might as well take this thing to its conclusion. She slipped into her muddy gardening clogs that were perched on a rack by the door. She made her way across the porch and down the steps to her side yard. Circling around to the backyard, she acknowledged that nothing appeared out of order.

Her hands shook. She fought the panic wanting to rise up in her. The fear that she had lost it, and gone totally around the bend.

This had happened before. Twice. The first time just after she moved in. She'd awakened to what she thought were shots fired and had roused all her neighbors within earshot.

And those times, like now, she'd uncovered nothing but a silent, sleeping street. The false alarm had not ingratiated her to her new neighbors. Most had been understandably pissed off.