Murder Artist
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
There's nothing in a glorious summer's day to suggest anything even remotely sinister. In fact, Alex Callahan, a news correspondent, surprises himself by enjoying the Renaissance Faire that his six-year-old twins, Kevin and Sean, have forced him to visit.
The boys are delighted by the jugglers and magicians, jesters and foodmongers dressed in full Elizabethan costume. But it's the joust that the boys have really been waiting to see. Alex takes a break to watch, while keeping half an eye on the twins, but when he turns to see how they are enjoying themselves, they're nowhere to be seen.
The perfect day has turned into every parent's nightmare. His sons have disappeared, and Alex is an immediate suspect. But no one can explain the bizarre origami figure he finds after he returns to his empty house. Or the bowl of water that has been left on the top shelf of the wardrobe. Or, the T-shirt soaked in blood...
As police attention to the case wanes, Alex's own investigations uncover a sinister, underground world that he never dreamed existed. A world where reality is portrayed as illusion, and where the reason behind the twins' disappearance is more terrifying than anything Alex can imagine...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A parent's worst nightmare is realized in Case's expertly written new thriller. During a summer-long, last-ditch attempt to reconnect with his family since separating from his wife, Washington TV reporter Alexander Callahan loses his identical twin six-year-old sons at a Maryland Renaissance fair. After facing the media avalanche outside his house, Alex and police detectives discover mysterious objects placed inside: a carefully crafted origami rabbit, a bowl of water in the closet, seven winged Liberty dimes in a neat stack. Following a "maelstrom of emotion," Alex is eliminated as a suspect and authorities concede a lack of reliable leads. Scouring the Internet, Alex discovers connections between several cases of abducted twins and his own situation, and with relentless determination he continues his investigation, traveling to Daytona Beach, Fla., to interview wary sources and Las Vegas, Nev., to research the horrific deaths of two abducted young showgirls. The kidnapper, it seems, is a malevolent magician dabbling in voodoo practices. Case's pace reaches a fever pitch as Alex chases more leads to New Orleans, where he teams up with a local albino sleuth and ends up on the doorstep of a witchdoctor who insists on a nightmarish rebirthing ritual before he'll break his silence on the killer. Northern and Southern California provide the final backdrops for a harrowing conclusion that will leave readers breathless. A long, winding narrative that's impossible to put down, this is another work of superior suspense from the author of The Genesis Code. FYI: John Case is the pen name of husband-and-wife team Jim and Carolyn Hougan.
