Description:

Abby Sinclair deals in risk assessment—but it’s lives, not fortunes, that are at stake. The Los Angeles investigator goes undercover to figure out whether a client’s stalker is simply an overzealous fan or a dangerous psychopath. She’s learned the hard way that the difference isn’t always apparent until it’s too late. In Raymond Hickle’s case, however, Abby has no doubts. The awkward loner’s fixation with gorgeous news anchor Kris Barwood has progressed from creepy to murderous. So Abby befriends Hickle, trying to gauge when and how he’ll strike. Yet her target is as wily as he is unhinged, and Abby has unwittingly made herself a madman’s latest obsession. With her reputation and life on the line, Abby races to save Kris before Hickle eliminates them both. *New York Times* best-selling author Michael Prescott takes readers on an adrenaline-pumping thrill ride packed with ingenious twists and gut-churning suspense. ** ### From Publishers Weekly Recluse Raymond Hickle has his sick sights set on Kris Barwood, the stunning Los Angeles news anchor. Meanwhile, freelance private detective Abby Sinclair is hired to stalk the stalker. She moves into Hickle's apartment building, befriends him, spies on him and draws out the deepest secrets from himAall in the hopes of stopping him from eventually killing Barwood. Hickle's secret informant, Barwood's cheating husband, Sinclair's suspicious lover and a botched stalker case from four months ago further complicate matters. The story appears as if it's going to climax near the three-quarters point of the book, but then Prescott (Comes the Dark) plants a series of twists and turns that keeps his novel going strong for more than 100 additional pages. In fact, so convincing is Prescott's prose that it's initially difficult to accept that the primary plot surprise isn't a bluff by one of the main characters. By the time all the shadows have been hunted, only two are captured and killed. But while a low body count may be uncommon in some modern-day thrillers, the technique works in Prescott's favor, enabling him to weave brilliant elements of psychological horror into the standard hunter-and-hunted story. Agent, Jane Dystel. (June) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. ### About the Author Michael Prescott was born and raised in New Jersey and attended Wesleyan University, majoring in film studies. After college, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career as a screenwriter. In 1986 he sold his first novel, and has gone on to pen six thrillers under the name Brian Harper and ten books as Michael Prescott. He has sold more than one million print copies and is finding a large new audience through e-books. Fan-favorite character Abby Sinclair, the “stalker’s stalker” first introduced in The Shadow Hunter, has since appeared in three more books.