Damaged (Maggie O'Dell Series #8) »

Alex Kava is an international bestselling suspense writer. Her work has been widely praised by critics and fans alike, and her previous novels in the Maggie O'Dell series, A Perfect Evil, Split Second and The Soul Catcher, have spent several weeks on the New York Times and USA TODAY bestseller lists.

In Pensacola Beach, the Coast Guard braces for a Category-5 hurricane that has entered the Gulf of Mexico. During a routine patrol of the waterways, the aircrew spots a massive fishing cooler floating a mile offshore. The guards suspect that the icebox contains smuggled drugs, but when they open it, they’re shocked. It is filled with body parts.

Criminal profiler Maggie O’Dell is sent to investigate as the rest of Florida holds its breath for the storm’s impending arrival. Eventually, Maggie is able to trace the torso in the cooler back to a man who mysteriously disappeared weeks earlier after a hurricane hit Port St. Lucie, on the Atlantic side of Florida. How, then, did his body end up six hundred miles away in the Gulf of Mexico?

Cliffhanger chapters, behind-the-scenes forensic details, colorful characters, and satisfying twists have become the trademarks of Alex Kava’s psychological thrillers. In Damaged she ratchets up the suspense by sending Maggie into the eye of a monster storm to track down a killer.

Publishers Weekly

At the start of Kava's exciting, if grisly, eighth Maggie O'Dell novel (after Black Friday), Liz Bailey, a 27-year-old Coast Guard rescue swimmer, retrieves a stainless steel cooler from Florida's Pensacola Bay. Inside are human body parts. FBI special agent Maggie and Charlie Wurth, the Department of Homeland Security's deputy director, once again team to investigate. Meanwhile, Maggie's hunky new boyfriend, Col. Benjamin Platt, comes to Florida in search of monstrous bacteria killing too many soldiers. The two cases connect through a body-parts broker who calls himself Joe Black. Black may be as charming as Brad Pitt, who played Death in the film Meet Joe Black, but he's a cold-blooded murderer who uses natural disasters and shady funeral directors, like Liz's brother-in-law, to stock his business. Maggie must venture into the eye of Hurricane Isaac as this intense thriller builds to an eye-popping revelation that will leave fans eager for the sequel. 6-city author tour. (July)