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Mariah Stewart is the award-winning author of the Last series: Last Look, Last Words, and Last Breath; the Truth series: Cold Truth, Hard Truth, Dark Truth, and Final Truth; and the Dead series: Dead Even, Dead Wrong, Dead Certain, and Dead End; as well as Until Dark and The President's Daughter. She is the recipient of both the Golden Leaf Award and the Award of Excellence presented by the Colorado Romance Writers, and has been a finalist for the Holt Medallion.

THIS KILLER TAKES THEIR BREATH AWAY.

A nine-year veteran of the FBI, special agent Mia Shields thinks she’s seen it all. But nothing prepares her for the terror that descends upon the idyllic bayside community of St. Dennis, on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, where a depraved killer has left a grisly surprise for Chief of Police Gabriel Beck: the body of an unidentified woman, naked and completely encased in plastic wrap, stretched across the back-seat of Beck’s car. Hidden in the wrapping is a tape recording of the victim’s last, gasping words, terrifying evidence of the horror endured at the hands of a madman. Soon the body count begins to rise as more victims are found, all gruesomely cocooned, their final pleas also captured on tape.
Determined to catch the sadistic killer, Beck and Mia team up and set a trap–with Mia as bait. But their prey is closer than they ever could have imagined. Now Beck must race against time to save Mia from becoming the next victim of a serial killer as elusive as he is evil.

Kristin Ramsdell - Library Journal

A serial killer with a penchant for swaddling his victims in plastic wrap is at work in peaceful St. Dennis. Police Chief Gabriel Beck agrees to call in the FBI for help, but attractive special agent Mia Shields isn't quite what he expected. Then the killings increase, and the two realize they must now use Mia as bait. The romance between Beck and Mia develops nicely, right along with the investigation, and while it doesn't get in the way of the mystery, it is important to the story. Second in Stewart's trilogy about the Shields family, this graphic woman-in-jeopardy tale is typical of her suspense novels and sure to keep her fans entertained. The final chapter in the series, Last Breath, will be out in August 2007. Stewart (Last Look) lives in the Philadelphia area.