Happy
Book Release Birthday to Mary Burton and her first book in her new Criminal
Profiler Series, Hide and Seek! To celebrate I have a guest piece from the
author as well as a sneak peek from Hide
and Seek, and a $25 Amazon Giveaway + an e-book of Hide & Seek!!
Title: Hide and Seek
Author: Mary Burton
Release Date: April 23, 2019
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Summary
Special Agent Macy Crow is a survivor. After a vicious
hit-and-run nearly kills her, she gets right back to work, and now she’s
gunning for a spot on the FBI’s elite profiling team. As an audition, she
offers to investigate the recently discovered bones of Tobi Turner, a high
school girl who disappeared fifteen years ago.
While investigating with local sheriff Mike Nevada, a former colleague and onetime lover, Macy discovers a link between Tobi’s case and several others that occurred around the same time as her disappearance. As Macy interviews victims and examines old cases, she uncovers a sinister picture of a stalker who graduated to sexual assault—and then murder.
Macy and Nevada race to put this monster behind bars before he can come out of hiding. But the murderer’s had years to hone his skills, and soon Macy herself becomes a target. She’s no stranger to pain and terror, but will Macy’s first profiling case be her last?
While investigating with local sheriff Mike Nevada, a former colleague and onetime lover, Macy discovers a link between Tobi’s case and several others that occurred around the same time as her disappearance. As Macy interviews victims and examines old cases, she uncovers a sinister picture of a stalker who graduated to sexual assault—and then murder.
Macy and Nevada race to put this monster behind bars before he can come out of hiding. But the murderer’s had years to hone his skills, and soon Macy herself becomes a target. She’s no stranger to pain and terror, but will Macy’s first profiling case be her last?
Profiling FBI Profiler Macy Crow
Special Agent Macy Crow
is 33-years-old and is an accomplished FBI Agent. She’s worked a series
of high profile cases across the United States and isn’t afraid to take
chances. When her father was murdered, she headed to Texas to investigate the
crime. Following clues left behind by her father, she was closing in on the
killer when she became the victim of a hit and run accident.
Most would have died
from the injuries Macy sustained or would have been permanently disabled.
However, Macy channeled her extreme ability to focus into her recovery. Though
her fit muscles have softened during her recovery, she is regaining strength
each day and is now laser-focused on returning to the FBI as a field
agent. Before her accident, she had shoulder length blond hair but the brain
surgeons who saved her life cut off all her hair. She now proudly sports a
pixie cut.
When Macy returned to
Texas, she learned a startling fact about herself. She has an identical
twin—medical examiner Dr. Faith McIntyre. Though adopted by different families,
the sisters already have a strong connection.
Macy’s adoptive parents
split when she was two and she moved from Texas to Alexandria, Virginia located
outside of Washington, D.C. Over the years she remained close with her father
and spent many summers with him helping repair old cars on his auto salvage
lot. In Alexandria, she and her mother lived in a large apartment complex. When
she was young, a neighborhood girl was murdered. That tragedy had a very
profound affect on Macy, who discovered she wasn’t afraid of the police and FBI
agents swarming the apartment complex. Instead, she was fascinated by their
work and not only watched law enforcement in action but also walked the actual
crime scene herself in search of clues.
Macy has never been
married and has no children. For a long time, she considered herself married to
her job and it wasn’t until she met FBI Special Agent Mike Nevada that she
reconsidered her single status. However, her accident cut short their romance.
Nevada is now the sheriff in a small Virginia town in the Shenandoah Valley. He
understands Macy’s need to reclaim the FBI job she has always loved so much. In
the last year, he has never forgotten her and is committed to helping regain
her old life. When the two are paired on a cold case murder investigation in
Nevada’s district, they become an unstoppable team.
Excerpt: Hide and Seek by Mary Burton
Vivid blue sky, white
clouds, and golden fall leaves blanketed the Blue Ridge and Allegheny mountains
and created a picture-perfect day in the valley. In Macy’s book, the beauty was
wasted. If she had God’s ear, today would have been cold, overcast, and damp.
Save the pretty days until she caught this killer.
As she drove south
down I-81, Macy mentally replayed her ten minutes of regional research. In the
last couple of decades, the Shenandoah Valley’s population had ballooned thanks
to a growing university, its proximity to Washington, DC, and a thriving
tourism trade peddling vineyards, Civil War battlefields, and railroad museums.
Filling in the economic gaps were warehouse distribution centers, chain hotels,
and strip malls.
The voice of Macy’s
GPS cut through AC/DC’s Back in Black blasting from her playlist and
instructed her to take the upcoming exit toward Deep Run. As she rolled onto
Route 250, a sign for her go-to fast-food eatery gave her an excuse to stretch
her legs before driving the remaining ten miles to the crime scene.
Parking, she gingerly
rose up out of the car. Her leg hurt. Stretches weren’t optional any more. She
grabbed her ankle and pulled until the bunched muscles in her thigh released.
After a quick walk around the lot, she made a beeline for the restaurant
bathroom.
She glanced into the
mirror as she washed her hands. Even after five months, she still didn’t
recognize the woman with the short hair and thin face.
Nevada was in for a
rude awakening.
She wiped her face
with a paper towel. “Macy Crow, you’re above ground and headed in the right
direction. That’s what counts.”
At the counter, she
ordered a supersize bucket of fries and a large soda. It wasn’t that she loved
the food—okay, maybe she did love the fries—but the chain restaurant’s
predictability and sameness was comforting after so many life changes.
A few fries later, she
was in her car and backing out of her space when her phone rang. Nevada’s
number appeared. She cleared her throat and sat a little taller.
“Agent Macy Crow,” she
said.
“Ramsey tells me
you’re on your way. Where are you?”
He was direct, rarely
charming, and she always knew where she stood with him. “Fifteen minutes from
the barn.”
“I’m here now.”
The transition back
into a working relationship appeared effortless. Whatever they had was over and
done. No hard feelings.
“See you soon,” she
said.
En route on the
interstate, she ate her fries and drained her soda. There were no guarantees on
when the next meal would be.
The last few miles
took her down smaller roads until she spotted the driveway marked by stacked
stones. Gravel crunched under her tires as she passed a freshly cleared field.
Over the rise of a hill, she saw the old barn encircled by yellow crime scene
tape.
When she had been
researching the area, slogans such as “Best Quality of Life” and “Raise Your
Family in Deep Run” popped up on her computer screen. As she had read about the
area, she had kept glancing toward her open case file filled with images of
Tobi Turner’s scattered bones. Recent pictures had captured the barn surrounded
by dozens of state and local law enforcement vehicles crammed side by side in
the grassy field.
Now as Macy parked,
she noted that all the vehicles were gone expect for a lone black SUV. She
grabbed her Glock from the glove box, holstered it, and stepped out of her car.
Her worn hiking boots sloshed in the damp muddy soil. She tugged on an FBI
windbreaker and draped her FBI credentials around her neck. As a stiff breeze
blew a lingering chill and autumn scents, she checked her pockets for latex
gloves, sunglasses, a small pocketknife, and pendant light.
Edginess and
excitement fused as she strode toward the stretch of yellow tape and searched
for Nevada. She ducked under the tape and stepped inside the barn.
***
Author Bio
New York Times and USA Today bestselling
novelist Mary Burton is the highly praised author of twenty-six romance and
suspense novels and five novellas. She lives in Virginia with her husband and
three miniature dachshunds.
Find Mary Burton on Social:
Website: https://www.maryburton.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaryBurtonBooks
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