Pawleys Island, South Carolina. Sunny, idyllic, and picture-perfect, until a tabloid news program airs a splashy segment about the community's only unsolved murder - the grisly stabbing of teenager Tara Mitchell and the subsequent disappearance of her two best friends, now thought to be long dead. In the years since the murders, several families have moved into the mansion where the crime occurred, each claiming that the dead girls still haunt the house. Beautiful redheaded reporter Nicole Sullivan, sensing the story that could be her big break, arranges for her mother, a renowned psychic, to contact the three victims in a live séance on the show Twenty-four Hours Investigates.

But something goes terribly wrong during the segment, and a young woman is murdered in the same manner as Tara Mitchell was fifteen years earlier. Pressured by her producers to get the inside story, Nicole continues to investigate. As an attraction grows between her and Police Chief Joe Franconi, another identical murder occurs, and a menacing warning is delivered that the original killer is back to claim three more lives. The body count rises, and so does the danger to Nicole, who is attacked, barely escaping with her life. She and Joe must team up, as it becomes clear that the killer has set his sights on her as his next victim.

 

Karen Robards is the author of more than twenty novels, most recently the New York Times bestseller Vanished. She lives in Louisville, Kentucky.