But Leah is hesitant to ask Emily to relive what she saw. She knows that Emily could be haunted by those memories forever. Until the same red roses Leah was sent on the night of her husband’s murder are found in Emily’s hospital room and the family is attacked again…
Luka must race against time to unravel Leah’s family secrets, as he battles painful reminders of his own fiancée’s death. But he has no idea just how close the killer is. Will he be able to keep Leah and her daughter safe?
Fans of Karin Slaughter, Kendra Elliot and Tess Gerritsen will devour this fast-paced and chilling new crime series from New York Times bestselling author CJ Lyons. You won’t be able to put this book down.
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The Drowned Woman
Jericho and Wright Book 2
Her eyes fluttered open as the first splash of frigid water crashed through the open window beside her. She shook her head, startled to be awake—to be alive. She was in her car, in the river. She blinked, tried to focus. And then it came back to her. He’d tried to kill her…
One month since she lost her husband, Dr Leah Wright knows it’s time to return to her family home. Though the crime scene tape and blood stains are gone, she will never feel safe with her daughter there again. Receiving a call from Detective Luka Jericho to assist with a police investigation is a welcome distraction, until she sees the scene: a wife dead, another family ripped apart.
As Leah is the new head of the Crisis Intervention Center, Luka knows she can help him speak to the victim’s traumatized husband, who he suspects might have had something to do with his wife’s death. But when Leah interviews the woman who lives across the hall, they uncover evidence of a serial killer in their rural Pennsylvania town. The same person who claims responsibility for drowning Luka’s fiancée seventeen years ago…
With danger closer to home than ever before, Leah realises that to find the killer they may need to dig into Luka’s past. But the killer is already taunting Luka, promising to kill again. Is it already too late to save another innocent life?
Brilliantly suspenseful until the very last page, The Drowned Woman is perfect for fans of Karin Slaughter, Kendra Elliot and Tess Gerritsen. An addictive new thriller in the Jericho and Wright crime series from New York Times bestselling author CJ Lyons.
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Acknowledgments
Dear Reader,
Ever wonder what happens behind the scenes of publishing a novel? There’s a large cast of hard-working professionals who often remain anonymous—even to the author!
Please allow me to take this opportunity to acknowledge the few whose names I know (and a quiet tip of the hat and heartfelt thanks to the ones who I don’t know yet), starting with my editor, Jennifer Hunt.
Being an editor sounds like a glamourous job. But actually, it’s more like going to school for a very long time in order to take a job where you’re expected to put in as many hours of work at home as you do during office hours and where you spend as much energy herding creative “cats” and juggling deadlines as you do helping to polish literary gems.
Jennifer has the responsibility of taking my words and ideas and helping me take them to the next level—not an easy thing as I’m constantly pushing the boundaries of genre constraints! The first book we worked on together, The Next Widow, was as much medical thriller as it was domestic suspense and yet she was in charge of wrangling my text, crafting the marketing plan, deciding upon title and cover art, helping with sales tactics, as well as reading, re-reading, and re-re-reading 100,000 words while constantly adding comments and suggestions to help make them the best they could be.
Rinse and repeat again… not only for this, my next book, The Drowned Woman, but also for all the titles written by her other authors. A true testament to her creativity—and patience! I am humbled by Jennifer’s insights and ability to force me to never take the easy way out, to make me question everything, and to explore new and different ways to give our readers the best experience possible.
Thankfully, Jennifer has a great team to help her, including my fantastic copyeditors, Natasha Hodgson and Becca Allen; the dynamic marketing team of Noelle Holten, Alex Crow, and Kim Nash; along with a stellar sales team and the leadership of Peta Nightingale.
But it all starts with Jennifer falling in love with my ideas and then being willing to take the time and energy to push my stories to be the best they can be.
So, sending heartfelt thanks and appreciation to the entire Bookouture team, especially Jennifer Hunt! I look forward to creating many more of my quirky “Thrillers with Heart” with all of you!
Thanks,
CJ
Published by Bookouture in 2021
An imprint of Storyfire Ltd.
Carmelite House
50 Victoria Embankment
London EC4Y 0DZ
www.bookouture.com
Copyright © CJ Lyons, 2021
CJ Lyons has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers.
eBook ISBN: 978-1-80019-433-5
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events other than those clearly in the public domain, are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
