Joan’s legs buckled. Darby ran to her.

‘She’s alive,’ Darby said, holding Nicky’s mother in her arms. Joan Hubbard felt as light and frail as a bird. ‘Your daughter is alive.’

And as Joan Hubbard wailed tears of joy and relief and sadness and heartbreak and loss, Darby thought, This is why you do this. This is why you travel through the dark and put yourself at risk. You do it for these moments: to bring lost souls home.

PRAISE FOR

CHRIS MOONEY:

‘One of the best thriller writers working today’

LEE CHILD

‘If you want a thriller that will chill your blood, break your heart and make your pulse race, Chris Mooney is your man’

MARK BILLINGHAM

‘It will keep you up past your bedtime’

KARIN SLAUGHTER

‘A scary, breakneck ride’

TESS GERRITSEN

‘Harrowing, gripping, haunting, gut-wrenching and beautifully written’

HARLAN COBEN

‘Chris Mooney is a wonderful writer’

MICHAEL CONNELLY

‘This season’s most unrelenting thriller… will keep readers enthralled’

GEORGE PELECANOS

‘A masterful thriller, dark and disturbing, with a tearing pace’

LINDA FAIRSTEIN

A mother and her son have been executed in their home and fingerprint matches show their attacker died twenty years ago.

But how can dead serial killers return to haunt the present?

The answers lie in the darkest shadows of The Dead Room .

When CSI Darby McCormick is called to the crime scene, it’s one of the most gruesome she’s ever seen. But the forensic evidence is even more disturbing: someone watched the murder unfold from the woodland behind the house – and the killer died in a shoot-out two decades earlier.

The deeper Darby digs, the more horrors come to light. Her prime suspect is revealed as a serial killer on an enormous scale, with a past that’s even more shocking than his crimes, thanks to a long-held secret that could rock Boston’s law enforcement to its core.

Is it possible to steal an identity? Or are dead men walking in Darby’s footsteps? The line between the living and the dead has never been finer.

RULE #1: DON’T SCREAM

Four years ago, Theresa Herrera’s ten-year-old son Rico was abducted. The police found little evidence and the case went cold. Theresa’s husband has told her to move on, but she won’t give up hope.

RULE #2: DON’T CALL THE POLICE

A mysterious woman invades Theresa’s home and tells her that Rico is alive. Theresa talks on the phone to a young man who is, without question, her son.

RULE #3: DON’T RUN. DON’T FIGHT

The woman promises to reunite Theresa with Rico only if she will follow the rules. But it is the last rule that fills Theresa with horror …

RULE #4: KILL YOUR HUSBAND AND YOUR SON WILL LIVE

Malcolm Fletcher – a former FBI profiler and now the nation’s Most Wanted fugitive – arrives in Colorado to help Theresa and her husband find their son. But his arrival coincides with a dangerous and shocking twist in the case.

Barely surviving his first encounter with a suspect, Fletcher embarks on his own secret investigation, with the police just behind him every step of the way.

Ten years ago CSI Darby McCormick investigated a sinister child abduction case.

Today, the missing child is back from the dead and holding his family hostage.

He makes only one demand. Bring me Darby McCormick …

Charlie Rizzo has his family at gunpoint and when Darby arrives to defuse the scene, she finds him horrifically mutilated, with a mask of human skin sewn in place over his own face. Within minutes, a group of men disguised as SWAT officers bursts in and releases deadly Sarin gas, killing the Rizzo family outright and leaving Darby herself barely alive.

Where has Charlie Rizzo been held all these years? Who are The Twelve who have been executing this gruesome torture? And why are the FBI running scared in the face of this particular, chilling episode? Darby is facing the toughest case of her career … and, as the body count rises, one that will bring her into great personal danger and leave her in fear of losing her mind, if not her soul.

For the Soul Collectors are the monsters from your worst nightmares.

Two dead girls in the water.

Two tiny statues of the Virgin Mary concealed in their clothing.

One CSI on the hunt for their killer.

When Judith Chen is found floating in Boston’s harbour, links are made with the murder of Emma Hale, a student who vanished without trace, only for her body to wash up months later.

CSI Darby McCormick is assigned to the case and uncovers a piece of overlooked evidence from the Hale investigation – which brings her into contact with Malcolm Fletcher, a former FBI agent now on the Most Wanted list after a string of bloody murders. And when a third student goes missing, Darby is led into a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse with deadly links to the past – and a man who speaks to the Blessed Virgin. A man who wants to be a secret friend to the girls he abducts.

The woman missing for five years.

The Crime Scene Investigator who finds her.

And the serial killer who wants them both dead …

When Boston CSI Darby McCormick finds a raving and emaciated woman hiding at the scene of a violent kidnap, she runs a DNA search to identify the Jane Doe. The result confirms she was abducted five years earlier and has somehow managed to escape from the dungeon in which she’s been caged.

With a teenage girl also missing and the Jane Doe seriously ill, the clock is ticking for Darby as she hunts for the dungeon before anyone else disappears or dies. And when the FBI takes over the investigation, it becomes clear that a sadistic serial killer has been on the prowl for decades – and is poised to strike again at any moment. A killer with links to horrors that Darby has tried desperately to bury in her past …

For all of you who find a crime story irresistible.

Discover the very best crime and thriller books on our dedicated website – hand-picked by our editorial team so you have tailored recommendations to help you choose what to read next.

We’ll introduce you to our favourite authors and the brightest new talent. Read exclusive interviews and specially commissioned features on everything from the best classic crime to our top ten TV detectives, join live webchats and speak to authors directly.

Plus our monthly book competition offers you the chance to win the latest crime fiction, and there are DVD box sets and digital devices to be won too.

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