Showing results by author "Nancy Bush" in All Categories

Twenty years ago, wild child Jessie Brentwood vanished from St. Elizabeth's high school. Most in Jessie's tight circle of friends believed she simply ran away. Few suspected that Jessie was hiding a shocking secret - one that brought her into the crosshairs of a vicious killer.

There are always stories told around the fire at summer camp—tall tales about gruesome murders and unhinged killers, concocted to scare new arrivals and lend an extra jolt of excitement to those hormone-charged nights. At Camp Luft-Shawk, nicknamed Camp Love Shack, there are stories about a creeping fog that brings death with it. But here, they're not just campfire tales. Here, the stories are real.

The note pinned to the dead body found on the remote beach has no name, just Ravinia Rutledge’s phone number and the words “Next of Kin.” Ravinia insists she doesn’t recognize the man on the mortuary slab, but she suspects Detective Nev Rhodes doesn’t believe her. He can tell that she’s one of them—the Siren Song women.

At Bristol High they were an elite clique known as the Five Firsts: Amanda, Bailey, Carmen, Delta and Zora...ABCD & Z. They could have accepted their classmate, Emmy, as "E", but with her bookish disposition and her embarrassing status of scholarship student to boot, they rejected her and chose wealthy Zora instead. At a pre-graduation party just before the end of senior year, Lance Ventura, the hottest guy in school, falls down an embankment toward the river and is barely rescued in time to save his life. One of the Five Firsts, Carman, rushes to save him, but isn't so lucky.

When Liv Dugan ducks out of work for lunch, it's just an ordinary day. When she returns, she stumbles onto a massacre. All her colleagues at Zuma Software have been shot. Only luck has left Liv unscathed, and that might be running out....

The Crissmans, owners of Crissman & Wolfe department store, were once one of Portland's most powerful families. There's still enough fortune left to sow mistrust between Lucy, her bohemian sister Layla, their brother Lyle, and his grasping wife Kate. When a charity event at the Crissman Lodge ends in a fatal poisoning, Lucy becomes a prime suspect. But the truth is even more twisted, and Lucy can't be sure which of her family is being targeted...or who to fear.

Rory Abernathy’s wedding to Liam Bastian turned into a bloodbath. She fled after stabbing a masked intruder, just before a gunman opened fire on the wedding party. Five years on, Rory still has no idea who was behind the attacks. Fearful she and her daughter remain targets, she’s made a new life far from Liam and the wealthy, powerful Bastians. But even in remote Point Roberts, Washington, she can’t hide from the past. Liam tracks Rory down, stunned to learn they have a child. Did someone in Rory’s family try to kill him for his portion of the Bastian estate?

The branding iron glows in the moonlight as he presses the searing metal into his victim's flesh. She must wear the devil's sign, just like the others. He knows the curse that afflicts them - and he'll make sure they carry it to their graves....

“I pledge my own life and soul to The Sorority.” Every school has its cool girls, and at River Glen High, they’re known as The Sorority. The name began as a joke, but it holds a grain of truth. Because they’ve made a pledge to protect one another . . . no matter what the cost may be. The pledge to kill Ethan Stanhope—that was a joke too. But then Ethan died in a car crash on the night of graduation, along with his little sister. A tragic accident, they said.

Detective September Rafferty - Nine to her friends - recognizes the artwork that arrives in the mail. She created it back in second grade. Now a killer's words are slashed across it in what looks like blood. He knows her. September's investigation leads to her old classmate, Jake Westerly. She wants to believe Jake is innocent. But trusting anyone could be her last mistake....

Some refer to it as the Colony. To others, it’s a cult. But few locals in the Oregon coastal hamlet of Deception Bay have ever been invited to the inner sanctum of Siren Song. Even the sisters who live here, far from strangers who might recoil at their unnerving psychic abilities, don’t know all the terrors buried within its walls…

For two years, Justice Turnbull has paced his room at Halo Valley Security Hospital, planning to escape. Justice has a mission - one that began with a vicious murder two decades ago. And there are so many others who must be sent back to the hell that spawned them. Laura Adderley didn’t plan to get pregnant by her soon-to-be ex-husband, though she’ll do anything to protect her baby. But now reporter Harrison Frost is asking questions about the mysterious group of women who live at Siren Song lodge. Harrison hasn’t figured out Laura’s connection to the story yet.

She senses their twisted desires before she meets them. It's as if fate is helping her stop these monsters from preying on others the way she was preyed upon. And after she has delivered brutal justice, she'll let the whole world see their guilt.

It's the ultimate test of strategy and skill. The killer chooses each opponent carefully, learning each one's weaknesses. Every meticulously planned move is leading to a devastating checkmate. Because in this game, all the pretty pawns must die.

Jane Kelly is through following men. She left Southern California for the murky quaintness of Lake Chinook, Oregon, apparently so she could trade her bartending skills for much more glamorous work as a process server. But things have been looking a little brighter lately. Her hobby doing PI work is kind of fun, especially when she lands a real case - that pays real money. But the case is about Bobby Reynolds, best friend of Tim Murphy, the only guy she's never gotten over. Everyone except Tim believed Bobby murdered his young family - isn't that why he vanished?

Twenty years ago, a fire ravaged the Dillinger family's old homestead, killing Judd Dillinger and crippling his girlfriend. Most people blamed a serial arsonist who'd been seen around town. But strange things are happening in Prairie Creek, Wyoming, again. Ira Dillinger, the family's wealthy patriarch, has summoned his children home for his upcoming wedding. Eldest son, Colton, and his siblings don't approve of their father's gold-digging bride-to-be. But someone is making his displeasure felt in terrifying ways, setting fires just like in the past. Only this time, there will be no survivors.

In the photograph, three teenaged girls splash in the lake on a sweltering summer evening. Shiloh, Kat, and Ruth are unaware of the man who spies on them from the woods. They have no idea how their lives will be changed by the brutal violence that follows - and the vow of secrecy they take. Fifteen years later, Ruth and Shiloh have both returned to Prairie Creek, Wyoming, where Kat is deputy sheriff. Though they've tried to leave their shared past behind, each has the feeling that someone is lurking in the shadows.

Elizabeth Gaines Ellis is an ordinary suburban wife and mother. That's what she tells herself as she flits between her realtor job, yoga class, and caring for her daughter, Chloe. But for months now, Elizabeth has worried that she's far from normal... that she's somehow the cause of a series of brutal, horrible deaths. Her mean-spirited boss. A bullying traffic cop. Her cheating husband. Elizabeth had reason to be angry with them all. She didn't mean for them to die.

Twenty years ago, wild child Jessie Brentwood vanished from St. Elizabeth’s high school. Most in Jessie’s tight circle of friends believed she simply ran away. Few suspected that Jessie was hiding a shocking secret - one that brought her into the crosshairs of a vicious killer.

Elizabeth Gaines Ellis is an ordinary suburban wife and mother. That's what she tells herself as she flits between her Realtor job, yoga class, and caring for her daughter, Chloe. But for months now, Elizabeth has worried that she's far from normal - that she's somehow the cause of a series of brutal, horrible deaths.