THE ALICE MADISON SERIES by Valentina Giambanco
THE GIFT OF DARKNESS (#1)
Olympic National Park,Washington State. In the hour before dawn, a man races through the pitch black forest. He skids to a stop at the end of the trail, it is the thirty-seventh time he has run that stretch, the twentieth at night. One day soon his ultimate purpose will depend on that single run: slow enough for those who will hunt him to follow, and fast enough so they will not catch him before his work is complete.
Seattle. Twenty five years have passed since three boys were kidnapped and taken into the woods; only two came back alive, the body of the third was never recovered and his death and the mystery of what happened have marred the lives of all involved.
Two weeks before Christmas a family is found murdered in their home, the killer has left a message carved on a doorframe: thirteen days. This is how long he is willing to give Homicide Detective Alice Madison to understand his purpose and to fulfil her part in it. Alice Madison ran away from home as a child, one breath away from committing an unforgivable act; as an adult, she found her peace chasing the very worst humanity has to offer.
The killer has planted evidence to incriminate a man feared and loathed on both sides of the law: John Cameron; twenty five years ago he was one of the boys who survived the kidnap, the father of the murdered family was the other.
All her life Detective Madison has had reason to question her own moral compass and now, to catch the real killer, she must betray her colleagues and strike an uneasy alliance with Cameron’s lawyer, a man whose ethics she despises.
On the thirteenth day, at 3am, in the place where the life of a child was once lost, the line between enemies and allies becomes blurred as a measure of justice is sought and found.
THE DARK (#2)
Seattle Homicide Detective Alice Madison is bound to jailed murderer John Cameron and attorney Nathan Quinn by a debt that cannot be repaid, by a nightmare that changed their lives forever.
When the remains of Quinn’s younger brother – murdered when he was a boy – are discovered in a shallow grave, Madison vows to follow the trail of brutal deaths that leads to the truth.
A sadistic killer stalks the investigation as Madison’s own demons threaten her future career with the police and darkness closes in. How far is she prepared to go to save a life?
BLOOD AND BONE (#3)
After two years in the Seattle Police Department Homicide Unit Detective Alice Madison seems to have found the kind of peace in her private and working life that she has not known before. When a local burglary escalates into a horrific murder she is put in charge of the investigation and finds herself tracking a killer who might have stalked the city for years – and whose brutality is the stuff of myth in high-security prisons. Alice Madison and her partner Detective Sergeant Kevin Brown will have to re-open old cases and old wounds because mistakes were made and Brown might be responsible for letting a killer go free. The bond between the detectives is tested to its limits as they navigate the case and Madison’s own past comes under scrutiny when Internal Affairs officers begin to investigate her.
Madison’s position on the force – and the fate of the case itself – are suddenly thrown in jeopardy just as the killer prepares to strike again.
SWEET AFTER DEATH (#4)
In the dead of winter Homicide Detective Alice Madison is sent from Seattle to investigate the first murder that ever occurred in Colville County and she is confronted with a cunning, merciless killer who is snatching his victims in plain sight and whose motive is unfathomable.
Together with her partner Detective Sergeant Kevin Brown and crime scene investigator Amy Sorensen, Madison must first understand the killer’s plan but the icy mountains around the town know how to keep their secrets.
When a man is arrested for the murders Madison finds herself in conflict with her partner and their professional relationship – and their friendship – is tested to breaking point. The first murder was only the beginning and as the town seems to be disintegrating under the killer’s spell Madison will have to reach into the dark, freezing wilderness to hunt down a predator and save more lives.
