Dead by Dusk

by Shannon Drake

The rustic oceanfront village of Bella Vista seems like something from an Italian postcard—until young women start disappearing, only to be found horribly mutilated. The police fear a sexual serial killer is at work—something to be hushed up to keep the tourists calm. But the fear in the eyes of the locals says it all: the murders are starting again…

For American Stephanie Cahill, Bella Vista is a new beginning—a chance to put her painful past behind her. Yet, from the moment the first body is discovered at the site of an archeological dig, Stephanie feels as if she’s being watched, followed, studied…hunted. Archeologist Grant Peterson senses something odd about this dig, something that has him locking his door at night. And now, the echoes of a burial site’s ancient legend can be found in the chilling signature of a killer on the loose. The powerful attraction between Stephanie and Grant is a complication neither can afford as they are pulled into a desperate race against time to keep Stephanie from joining the ranks of the missing. For nothing in Bella Vista is what it seems. No one can be trusted. And those closest to Stephanie may prove the most dangerous of all...

Paperback Zebra Books (January 2005)