With Red Hands »

A First Place winner in the Writers of the Future Contest, Stephen Woodworth has published speculative fiction for more than a decade. His work has appeared in such venues as The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Weird Tales, Aboriginal Science Fiction, Gothic.Net, and Strange Horizons. A native Californian, he is currently writing more novels in the Violet universe.

Natalie Lindstrom was once one of an elite group of investigators with the power to interview the dead victims of violent crime. But now Natalie has had enough. Enough of the violence. Enough of the darkness that has already gotten too close to her five-year-old daughter. Yet as she tries to build a new life and protect her child from the world she has left, Natalie still knows injustice when she sees it. And she knows that in a high-profile California trial, a young man is getting away with murder.

The case against Prescott Hyland Jr. is airtight–until a corrupt Violet delivers devastating testimony against another man. Now Natalie is being drawn back into her former career and a danger far worse than she can imagine. For while one killer is being tried in a courtroom, another has gone horribly free: to unleash a storm of vengeance–aimed straight for the heart of Natalie’s new life. Because, in the world of the Violets, sometimes your past can literally come back to haunt you. . . .

Publishers Weekly

Woodworth's fast-paced and imaginative sequel to his amazing debut, Through Violet Eyes, revisits the world of the Violets, a small group of individuals born with violet eyes and the ability to communicate with the dead. Society has accepted the idea that death is not the end, and courtrooms regularly employ Violets to introduce testimony from murder victims. When a teenage boy is put on trial for shooting his wealthy parents, a well-known Violet takes the stand and channels the dead parents to confirm that it was someone other than their son who pulled the trigger. Meanwhile, Natalie Lindstrom, a Violet who has retired from the job and is working hard to prevent her daughter, Callie, from entering it, examines the case and discovers that the Violet on the stand might be falsifying the postmortem testimony, something previously thought impossible. Natalie's also grappling with her mother, a Violet institutionalized years ago; her mother says she has been visited by the Thresher, a ruthless killer who refuses to stop his ghoulish work even though he has been executed. The separate story threads weave together seamlessly as Woodworth unveils the "Needlepoint killer," whose viciousness makes Hannibal Lecter seem like a Sunday School teacher. As with Through Violet Eyes, the violence in this book is matched by its intelligence. Agent, James Vines at the Vines Agency. (Jan. 4) Forecast: Blurbs from a wide range of authors-Lisa Gardner, Iris Johansen, Greg Bear, Joe R. Lansdale, Elizabeth Hand-will help cement Woodworth's reputation as one of the more original thriller authors in recent memory. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.