A Death in the Family

Detective Adam Stone's wife is the first victim in a series of gruesome murders of women in Charleston, SC. With each successive murder, it becomes more apparent that a serial killer is prowling the streets of Charleston. The Holy City is frozen in fear. Pressure is mounting on Stone and his fellow detectives to hunt down the killer. This is the first book in the new Adam Stone detective series.

Stone and Marcus Williams had both spent almost twenty years on the force, the last five as partners. They were members of the elite Organized Crime Unit (OCU) of Captain Ed Merchant's Special Operations Division. From the beginning of their partnership, they consistently topped the department's "kill" chart, which tracked the successful completion of investigations.

The two could not have looked more different or come from more divergent backgrounds. Stone was white, 5' 11" and 185. Williams was black, 6' 4", topping the scales at 250. Williams' face was all hard edges--like it was whittled from a block of mahogany. Stone's longish light blond hair was in stark contrast to his partner's shaved charcoal-black head. Williams dressed in dark blue suits, his tie always knotted, his gold detective badge clipped to his leather belt. Stone preferred jeans and a sport coat, and Williams was always on him about it.

Adam's life is torn apart when his wife, Ann, is found murdered. The department is frustrated when lead after lead goes nowhere, and the case becomes cold. However, almost one year later, other women begin to be murdered, and all the killings look to be a mirror image of the way Ann was murdered. It soon becomes clear a serial killer is behind the murders--the killer always leaves a prayer candle in the hands of his victims. The time between the murders is getting shorter and shorter, and the pressure to catch "The Candle Killer" mounts.