Tim McBain

Her body lies tucked in the shadows beneath the overpass. Steel girders yawing over her delicate form. Above her, the traffic thunders without end. Tires thumping over the bridge, over the asphalt. The black ribbon of the highway stretches into the night.When a second body turns up in a truck stop parking lot, FBI profiler Violet Darger heads to rural North Carolina to investigate. These crimes are quickly connected to more. And more. And more.The scope of the crisis balloons. Soon, a task force is formed to work a serial murder case spanning a 1,500 mile stretch of the interstate.A freeway killer stalks up and down the eastern seaboard, his hunting grounds stretching from the everglades into New England.The logistics strain law enforcement techniques and resources alike. It's overwhelming.Darger has never worked a case like this one. Progess is slow. Frustration mounts.And all the while, the killer is out there. On the road. Free to roam.Darger will need to dig into the history of freeway killers to understand the psychology driving the crimes. Only then can she hope to stop him.But complications lurk around every corner, and danger lies in wait just down the road. When Darger finally finds her way, somebody is waiting for her.

Her body seems to hover above the forest floor. Arms and legs torn away from the trunk. A bloody stump mounted upright on a skewer.Not just a corpse. A warning.The most recent body was discovered in the woods just beyond a logging cabin. Dismembered. Put on display. Ghostly pale skin stark against the forest's green.Before that, two campers were found a few miles off. Cut apart. Impaled. Left in public places where they'd surely be found.The grisly crimes summon FBI profiler Violet Darger to a tiny island off the Alaskan coast -- 2,500 square miles of forested land populated by just 6,000 souls.Here, in the primordial wilderness, she'll face off with a shadowy killer unlike anything she's seen. Raging. Brutal. Elusive.He waits. Seethes. In the woods. In the dark. Always watching. He waits.Darger digs into the history of torso killers to try to understand the psychology behind the crimes. Finds a legacy of savagery dating back over a hundred years.Aggression beyond comprehension. A recurring phenomenon of human behavior that chills her.Human anatomy used to mark out territory. Corpses made totems to warn off others. It happens over and over again.Who could carry out such brutality? And why?Understanding the interior world, the motivations, of this type of killer will be the key to solving the case.The dark woods hold his secrets tightly. The terrain itself shielding him, giving him an edge over those in law enforcement seeking him.When a storm moves in, Darger finds herself in peril deep in his territory. Vulnerable. Exposed. Walking right into his trap.He waits.

By the time you read this, I'll be dead, but what I've set into motion will only be beginning.The first blast takes out an actor from a string of famous coffee commercials. A plain cardboard box in the mail blows when he opens it. Pumps hot nails through his face.So begins the series of mail bombs that beckons FBI profiler Violet Darger to New York.The bomber's plan is meticulous -- an ever growing spectacle of gruesome violence meant to spread his cryptic message piece by piece. And the clock is ticking.Starting at midnight tonight, a bomb will go off roughly every eight hours, and a target will be neutralized.The bomber has left chunks of his journal throughout the city. These not only articulate his twisted message, they contain clues about the bombs.Clues for names. Clues for places.Everything law enforcement needs to locate and disarm one of the bombs is there... if they can find it in time.It's a race against the clock.Understanding the bomber's psychology could be the key to deciphering the codes and riddles, the key to saving lives.Darger faces a threat on a scale unlike anything she's encountered so far. If she doesn't solve the clues in time, thousands will die.Let the countdown begin.

The corpse juts from the heaping bulge of the landfill. Milky white flesh laid bare by the front loader's blade. Naked. Female. Face down in the garbage.When three bodies turn up in a landfill outside of Philadelphia, FBI profiler Violet Darger heads to Pennsylvania to investigate. Right away there's a major complication. The emaciated corpses appear to have been starved to death.Darger arrives in time for the autopsies. Watches withered bodies laid out on the stainless steel slabs of the morgue, their faces crusted with sandy soil, skin pulled taut around knobby cheekbones.What kind of a person could carry out such harsh acts? Figuring out the warped psychology might be the key to solving the case.Forensic evidence helps Darger trace the bodies to a particular dumpster in West Philadelphia. It's the first step down the long, dark passage this case leads her through.Because the city is full of deadly secrets -- horrors waiting beneath the surface.In her most shocking and bizarre case yet, the darkness comes for Darger in a way it never has before. Surrounds her. Envelops her. Will she find her way back to the light?

Fire crawls up the sides of the church. The orange glow thrashes. Blackens the siding. Climbs up onto the steeple. The flames close in on the wedding party trapped inside.When a serial arsonist terrorizes Los Angeles County, FBI profiler Violet Darger heads to California to investigate. The fires keep coming faster. The body count rises, and the threat hangs over the city as thick as the smog.The case file is brutal -- stuffed with photographs of charred bodies, human faces melted beyond recognition. And when Darger gets up close to the crimes, the real thing, that sense of savagery only intensifies.What kind of a person could carry out such cruelties? Understanding the warped psychology will be the key to solving the case.The suspect seems hellbent on creating a spectacle. Bigger targets. More deaths. He treats setting fires like a Hollywood special effects sequence, like he's building up to the shocking finale.Watch the city burn. It's entertainment.And there's one more factor complicating the investigation: Autumn is settling in over Southern California. The leaves are changing color, and the Santa Ana winds have begun to change directions. The Hollywood Hills are ripe for a forest fire. The arsonist means to make it the biggest one yet.A page-turner packed with heart-stopping suspense. Fans of John Sandford, Michael Connelly, Lisa Regan, and Lisa Gardner should check out the Violet Darger series.

Her body floats. A bloated thing half atop the river. Naked. Pale. Mouth and eyes open wide.When two fishermen discover a corpse floating in the Clackamas river, profiler Violet Darger heads to rural Oregon to hunt another serial killer. What she discovers in the woods might change the course of her life.What secrets does the water conceal?The girl in the water marks the third such case in the area -- all drowned with superficial stab wounds and discovered in a body of water -- and Darger feels certain she won't be the last.The corpses are badly decomposed. The flesh purpled and softened from their time in the water. The forensic evidence distorted by decay and the elements.But the victims share one more thing in common -- all were discovered roughly five days post mortem. A coincidence? Something with meaning to be discerned?Darger suspects the timeline to be significant, but without evidence, she can only guess as to why. That sets up what might be the key to the case: What is the killer doing to the victims for the four days between their deaths and dumping their bodies?It's Darger's first case without Loshak, and it will test her like none before.

Shallow graves scar the desert landscape. A cemetery in the sand. Some of the lost are never found.Thousands of girls go missing every year in Las Vegas. Abducted. Or worse.And now the dead are calling.These lost girls summon FBI Profiler Violet Darger to Sin City -- a new case. There are fresh dead to sort through -- two bodies burned beyond recognition in the trunk of a sedan -- and there's reason to believe that there are missing girls waiting to be saved.Rumors swirl that a legendary killer is responsible for these crimes. An escaped prisoner with a personal grudge against Darger -- one who wants her and her partner dead. One who disappeared for 20 years.But the desert is full of deadly secrets -- horrors waiting beneath the sand.If Darger finds the killer in time, the girls will live. If not...This pulse-pounding thriller will have you holding your breath until the final page. Fans of John Sandford, Karin Slaughter, Gillian Flynn, and Lisa Gardner should check out the Violet Darger series.The books in the series can be read in any order, so grab The Girl in the Sand and get started today.Praise for the Violet Darger series: "Un-put-downable I cannot wait for this series to grow. If you love Sandford, Slaughter, Kava, Stelljes and Deaver, you'll LOVE Vargus & McBain " -- Melody M"The Violet Darger books are honestly the best detective novels I've ever read." -- Devin"Vargus and McBain have, in Violet Darger, created a character that absolutely stands up with some of the greats -- Phillip Marlowe, Dave Robicheaux, Elvis Cole, Charlie Parker, August Dupin, Jack Reacher, Harry Bosch, etc." -- Lucinda E. Snyder"Wow, just wow If you like scare-you-half-to-death mystery books this is the one for you. It starts with a bang and just doesn't stop." -- Ada Lavin"This series is full of suspense, action, and lots of murder." -- EllenAn"Violet Darger is a unique, incredible character, and I immensely enjoyed taking this journey with her." -- Cat"A rush of excitement, twists and turns." -- C. Munger"Insightful, bloody. Page turner about the corruption of morality and warped thinking patterns." -- Bella from Readingnstuff.com

Two days. Fourteen dead. The next victim could be you.The first bullet punches through the windshield of an SUV. A head shot. The driver's death is instantaneous. And it's only the beginning.A sniper along I-20 kills eight and causes a 36 car pileup. Brutal. Efficient.The next morning, the same individual stalks through a grocery store parking lot with a handgun. He takes out six innocent shoppers along with the store's front window before fleeing without a trace.By the time Special Agent Violet Darger arrives in Atlanta, the city teeters toward panic. The vacant streets and restaurants paint an eerie picture. No one dares to venture out.A killer walks among them. A shadow. And the public cowers just the way he wants them to.Once more Agent Darger must identify with a murderer, must stare into the darkness to anticipate his next move. Putting herself in his head may be the only way to stop him.The longer she takes, the higher the death toll. He will kill again and again.But what hatred drives a man to such desperate, violent acts?And what price must one pay to invite that chaos inside themselves?A page-turner packed with heart-stopping suspense. Fans of John Sandford, Karin Slaughter, Gillian Flynn, and Lisa Gardner should check out the Violet Darger series.The books in the series can be read in any order, so grab Killing Season and get started today.Praise for the Violet Darger series: "The Violet Darger books are honestly the best detective novels I've ever read." -- Devin"Wow, just wow If you like scare-you-half-to-death mystery books this is the one for you. It starts with a bang and just doesn't stop." -- Ada Lavin"A rush of excitement, twists and turns." -- C. Munger"I found myself completely invested in every character, from the authorities to the killer to the victims themselves." -- eden Hudson, author of Revenge of the Bloodslinger"It's not a glimpse...it's a good long look inside the mind of a killer. It's fast paced, it's scary, and it's satisfying." -- Rain"If you are a fan of Silence of the Lambs, this book is a spiritual successor." -- Amazon customer

Down the beach, she can just make out the rusting hulk of the Ferris wheel through the dawn mist. The hairs prickle on her neck as she drags her focus back to the chestnut hair fanned out in the shallow water at her feet, to the grains of sand decorating the beautiful girl's white cheeks like freckles. Private Detective Charlie Winters never thought she'd find herself back on Salem Island, but she's forced home re-open the wound that never healed: her sister was abducted from the small town when they were teenagers. For Charlie, her sister's voice in her head--pushing her to risk everything to seek justice for the innocent--is a painful and constant reminder of what she lost. And never has that voice been louder than when a family friend comes to Charlie begging for help to find her missing daughter, Kara. Searching Kara's messy, poster-covered bedroom, Charlie finds more questions than answers. Did Kara run away, or was she snatched? She's clearly been keeping secrets from her family--but don't all teenagers? A little black matchbook hidden in a jewellery box is Charlie's only lead, but the seedy nightclub it comes from proves to be nothing but a dangerous dead end. Until Charlie is approached by a second distraught mother whose daughter has also vanished. Forced at every turn to relive the trauma she ran away from, Charlie's blood runs cold when a girl's body is discovered in the exact spot on the water's edge where the last trace of her sister was found. It's clear someone is taunting Charlie, but with other innocent girls' lives at risk, she has no choice but to take the bait... An absolutely unputdownable crime thriller that will leave you gasping for breath. Fans of Angela Marsons, Robert Dugoni and Lisa Regan will need to sleep with the lights on Readers adore First Girl Gone 'Leaves you on the edge of your seat until the wee hours of the morning. Kept me enthralled from cover to cover. Heart-stopping suspense.' Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars 'A great start to a new series. It is a true page turner and I was truly blind-sided by the reveal. Lots of potential and promise in this series.' Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars 'Wow...This is so much better than the majority of crime books out there. Suspenseful, engrossing... All of the characters are believable... I want to read the next one please pretty please.' Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars 'Stylish, taut and addictive... One of the masterpieces of 2020... I was drawn in from the very first word... kept me hooked until I read its wonderful and satisfying ending. I completed it in one night.' NetGalley Reviewer, 5 stars'Stayed up far too late devouring this absolutely gripping and unputdownable crime thriller... I absolutely cannot wait to read more... kept on the edge of my seat... there's absolutely no way I could've predicted where this was going. This is extremely well-written and fast-paced... completely addicted to this book . A definite five star read.' Little Miss Book Lover 87, 5 stars

Her body is broken. Wrapped in plastic. Dumped on the side of the road. She is the first. There will be more. The serial killer thriller that "refuses to let go until you've read the last sentence." The most recent body was discovered in the grease dumpster behind a Burger King. Dismembered. Shoved into two garbage bags and lowered into the murky oil. Now rookie agent Violet Darger gets the most important assignment of her career. She travels to the Midwest to face a killer unlike anything she's seen. Aggressive. Territorial. Deranged and driven. Another mutilated corpse was found next to a roller rink. A third in the gutter in a residential neighborhood. These bold displays of violence shock the rural community and rattle local law enforcement. Who could carry out such brutality? And why? Unfortunately for Agent Darger, there's little physical evidence to work with, and the only witnesses prove to be unreliable. The case seems hopeless. If she fails, more will die. He will kill again and again. The victims harbor dark secrets. The clues twist and writhe and refuse to keep still. And the killer watches the investigation on the nightly news, gleeful to relive the violence, knowing that he can't be stopped.