The Shark

by Mary Burton

Overview

A state trooper’s teenage runaway past comes back to haunt her in the first of USA Today bestselling author Mary Burton’s heart-stopping Forgotten Files Trilogy. Now in mass market paperback!

At the grisly murder scene of a teen prostitute, Virginia state trooper Riley Tatum’s past roars back to haunt her. When she was a teenage runaway, she was kidnapped, drugged, and left unconscious on the streets. She has no memories of what happened, only strange recurring dreams of two men playing cards.

Former FBI agent Clay Bowman, Riley’s old flame, is Shield Security’s newest member. He’s plagued by the unsolved case of a serial killer nicknamed the Shark who murdered girls as part of a sadistic poker game. Only one girl survived. With the Shark now bent on settling that score, Clay has a chilling suspicion: Riley is the girl who escaped the Shark’s deadly amusement—and she is his next prey.

As the Shark gets ready to play his hand, can Riley and Clay stop him―or will this killer finally claim the one who got away?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781420155990
Publisher:	Kensington
Publication date:	06/27/2023
Series:	The Forgotten Files Trilogy , #1
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	708,762
Product dimensions:	4.20(w) x 7.47(h) x 0.87(d)

About the Author

Mary Burton is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over thirty suspense novels including The Seventh Victim, Senseless, Merciless, and Dying Scream. A member of International Thriller Writers, Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, Novelists, Inc., and Romance Writers of America, Mary is known for creating multiple suspense stories connected by characters and/or place. She is a recipient of the prestigious RITA® Award from the Romance Writers of America, a Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award-Finalist, and a RT Book Reviews' Critics Choice Award-nominee. A Virginia native, she is a graduate of the Henrico County Citizens Police Academy and the Richmond F.B.I. Citizen's Academy where she participated in Sisters in Crime's forensic university program. Readers can find her online at MaryBurton.com.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Mary Burton:
 
“[Mary Burton is] a sure bet for page-turning suspense coupled with titillating love scenes.” —Library Journal
 
“Chilling suspense starts promptly at the beginning, setting the steady clip for the unveiling of the suspects. Within this chills and thrills ride, there is romance, against the odds, that may develop under the right conditions.” —USAToday.com on Cover Your Eyes
 
“Burton’s trademark is providing the serial killer’s viewpoint without giving anything away, and by feeding the reader tiny details one at a time, she keeps the tension building.” —Publishers Weekly on Cover Your Eyes
 
“If there’s a category of ‘page-turner,’ Burton would always end up on the top of that list…Fantastic work with never a dull moment for the reader.” —Suspense Magazine on Cover Your Eyes
 
“With sharp detail, a nicely developed romance, and stellar plotting that distributes clues with chilling precision, Burton’s latest ‘lock your door and keep the lights on’ thriller beautifully kicks off her new series of four Nashville-set mysteries dealing with the Morgan Family.” —Library Journal on Cover Your Eyes
 
“A dark engaging mystery suspense…Rich dialogue, complex characters, and a well-plotted storyline provides us with a multi-layered whodunit that twists and turns with deception and misdirection.” —SmexyBooks on Cover Your Eyes
 
“You can’t go wrong with romantic suspense from Mary Burton.” —The Pilot on Cover Your Eyes

From the Publisher

03/07/2016
Burton’s launches her Forgotten Files series with the dark tale of Riley Tatum, a Virginia state trooper who is still struggling to remember what happened when she was kidnapped in New Orleans as a teen. When she discovers a body that resembles her physically and has the same high-quality playing cards on it that were found on Riley years ago, she realizes that she might have escaped a worse fate than she imagined. The case also brings in Clay Bowman, formerly both an FBI agent and Riley’s lover, who is now working for the private contractor Shield Security. Their personal reconnection increases as their investigation reveals more about Riley’s past and the titular villain, a man who makes his opponents in card games ante up young girls whom they must kill if they lose. Burton throws in a number of twists and a nice variety of characters, including Riley’s foster daughter, Hanna; Shield’s eponymous founder; and Duke, Riley’s father figure, who helped her get her life back together. This romantic thriller is tense, sexy, and pleasingly complex. Agent: Karen Solem, Spencerhill Associates. (May)

Publishers Weekly