Kay Hooper - The Wizard of Seattle

BLOOD SINS

Disturbing Hooper pulls out all the stops.

Publishers Weekly

BLOOD DREAMS

You wont want to turn the lights out after reading this book!

Romantic Times

A good read for fans of other serial-killer books and the TV show Criminal Minds.

Booklist

SLEEPING WITH FEAR

An entertaining book for any reader.

Winston-Salem Journal

Hooper keeps the suspense dialed up. Readers will be mesmerized by a plot that moves quickly to a chilling conclusion.

Publishers Weekly

CHILL OF FEAR

Hoopers latest may offer her fans a few shivers on a hot beach.

Publishers Weekly

Kay Hooper has conjured a fine thriller with appealing young ghosts and a suitably evil presence to provide a welcome chill on a hot summers day.

Orlando Sentinel

The author draws the reader into the story line and, once there, they cant leave because they want to see what happens next in this thrill-a-minute, chilling, fantastic reading experience.

Midwest Book Review

The author draws the reader into the story line and, once there, they cant leave because they want to see what happens next in this thrill-a-minute, chilling, fantastic reading experience.

Midwest Book Review

HUNTING FEAR

A well-told, scary story.

Toronto Sun

Hoopers unerring story sense and ability to keep the pages flying cant be denied.

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

Its vintage Hoopera suspenseful page-turner.

Brazosport Facts

Expect plenty of twists and surprises as Kay Hooper gets her new series off to a crackerjack start!

Aptos Times

SENSE OF EVIL

A well-written, entertaining police procedural loaded with suspense.

Midwest Book Review

Filled with page-turning suspense.

Sunday Oklahoman

Sense of Evil will knock your socks off.

Rendezvous

A master storyteller.

Tami Hoag

STEALING SHADOWS

A fast-paced, suspenseful plot The storys complicated and intriguing twists and turns keep the reader guessing until the chilling end.

Publishers Weekly

HAUNTING RACHEL

A stirring and evocative thriller.

Palo Alto Daily News

The pace flies, the suspense never lets up. Its great reading.

Baton Rouge Advocate

It passed the stay up late to finish it in one night test.

Denver Post

FINDING LAURA

You always know you are in for an outstanding read when you pick up a Kay Hooper novel, but in Finding Laura, she has created something really special! Simply superb!

Romantic Times

Hooper keeps the intrigue pleasurably complicated, with gothic touches of suspense and a satisfying resolution.

Publishers Weekly

AFTER CAROLINE

Harrowing good fun. Readers will shiver and shudder.

Publishers Weekly

Kay Hooper has crafted another solid story to keep readers enthralled until the last page is turned.

Booklist

Kay Hooper comes through with thrills, chills, and plenty of romance, this time with an energetic murder mystery with a clever twist. The suspense is sustained admirably right up to the end.

Kirkus Reviews

The Bishop Trilogies
Stealing Shadows
Hiding in the Shadows
Out of the Shadows

Touching Evil
Whisper of Evil
Sense of Evil

Hunting Fear
Chill of Fear
Sleeping with Fear

Blood Dreams
Blood Sins

The Quinn Novels
Once a Thief
Always a Thief

Romantic Suspense
Amanda
After Caroline
Finding Laura
Haunting Rachel

Classic Fantasy and Romance
On Wings of Magic
The Wizard of Seattle
My Guardian Angel (anthology)
Yours to Keep (anthology)
Golden Threads
Something Different / Peppers Way
C.J.s Fate
The Haunting of Josie
Illegal Possession
If There Be Dragons

This book is for my editor, Nita Taublib, because of her enthusiasm, her honesty, and the sneaky tactics she uses to get me to return phone calls.

This book is for my agent, Eileen Fallon, because she never yells at me, even when I deserve to be yelled at, and because we can talk about anythingeven politics.

And this book is for my friend Catherine Coulter, because of something she said in San Diego.

AtlantiaPast

It was near midnight, but the sky remained a deep and pulsing blood red, as if a dying sun lingered long past its time. Directly above the village, above the miles-across natural amphitheater formed by the tall mountains that ringed the valley, the very air was alive with energy, crawling and crackling softly. The small cottages of the village were dark and silent, huddled in among themselves.

If anyone heard the girl, no one answered her cries.

She did not scream hysterically, nor was there any note of hope in her calls for aid. Her wide blue eyes lifted often to the shifting sky that could be glimpsed between the trees, but she spared no glance behind her, where the sounds of pursuit grew louder. After a time she saved her breath for running, knowing only too well that she could expect no help from the villagers.

Whered she go?

I saw her

There! Quick, cut her off!

Harsh voices. Three of them. Ruthless male voices containing no pity, no mercy, no emotion save furious urgency.

With the instinct of a hunted animal, she evaded their trap, choosing the thickest part of the forest and ignoring the thorns that ripped and tore her white robe as she ran. The sounds of pursuit dimmed, the forest echoing with ghostly epithets no less savage for the distance between them and the desperately fleeing girl.

The stabbing ache in her side forced her to halt when she was less than halfway across the valley. She leaned against a squat and gnarled tree and stretched her right hand up to the sky, as if beseeching some nameless, faceless god to help her. Her only answer came when her feeble energies were turned back on her fiercely by the unforgiving night of Atlantia; there was a flash of dim, grim light and a searing pain in her hand that jerked a moan from her lips. She brought the hand to her breast and cradled it there with her left one, not bothering to look at the new blister that had been added to the others.

At night in the valley, all were powerless.

Especially the women.

Over the sounds of her labored breathing, she could hear her pursuers, closer now, on her scent like a pack of ravenous wolves. They were not wizards. Unlike her, they were not enervated by the heavy pressure of energies lashing in the sky above or unable to use the natural strengths of their bodies and minds. They were not exhausted, or lost, or alone.

And they were not afraid of her. Not now. Not at night.

She pushed herself away from the tree and stumbled on, so weakened now by her useless attempts at defense that she knew she would never reach the slope of the mountain looming ahead.

They wouldnt kill her, she knew, at least not deliberately. Even in this valley, where she was powerless, they would not dare to take her life. She almost wished they would, for what they intended to do to her would destroy her slowly and in agony. The power she could not use to defend herself would be stolen from her by their greed and lust.