I’m sure most of you have seen the T-shirt with a mountain of books and the words, “So Many Books, So Little Time.”

We all have our own towering TBR piles. I’ve decided that when you get unread books together, they procreate, because that’s the only explanation I have for my growing TBR piles. I wouldn’t actually buy any more books when I have so many unread, would I? (cough)

But it’s not books I haven’t read that give me fits. It’s books I haven’t written.

I will never say I have too many ideas for fear of jinxing my muse and ending up with nothing. In fact, after I sold THE PREY, I feared I’d never have another good idea. Or if I did, I wouldn’t be able to write another publishable book. Or if I did, that would be the last, because I couldn’t come up with more than two good ideas for stories. I think part of me was scared of assuming I’d always have a book idea, and part of me was scared to think I wouldn’t recognize a good–or bad–idea.

I probably shouldn’t be scared of losing ideas. I have a pretty good knack now for knowing what will work and what won’t in my genre and with my voice. I have some ideas outside of my genre and some outside of my natural voice that scare me, however. For example, on one of my published author loops this week we were talking about Westerns. You see, I actually have a Gold Rush era romantic suspense idea very loosely based on the first known serial killer in America. (The first known serial killer, a killing pair, was far earlier than the Gold Rush era, and nowhere near the West. But since I’m a fifth-generation Californian, I’m more interested in California history and the Gold Rush and turn of the century San Francisco, so I thought I’d just bring the psychology behind those killers into the 19th century.)

I have another idea for a YA trilogy. It’s something I want to write someday, more because it’s a story I’ve been thinking about since before I even sold my first book (though I hadn’t thought of it as YA back in 2003, it has younger protagonists so would fit the YA mold very well.) The problem? It’s SF/fantasy. Yes, heavy on the suspense, because I don’t think I can write anything without suspense at its core, but still an epic fantasy.

Again, outside of my genre.

Then there’s my idea for a straight-up mystery series with a heavy dose of dark humor. I already can picture my hero and heroine, a married couple, and then I have to slap myself. I don’t write funny.

And those are just the ideas that don’t mesh with what I write now.

Daily, I have a snippet of an idea for a future Lucy Kincaid book. Usually I know if the idea is small (part of a bigger story) or the key plot. A couple weeks ago I wrote one paragraph for each of the next three Lucy books and sent them off to my agent. Two were fleshed out into full paragraphs; one was a single sentence.

When I first thought about the Lucy Kincaid series, didn’t have any ideas for her, just that her character would fit in a lot of different stories. Her past, her family, her personality, her intelligence, the way she looks at the world gives me a lot to play with. I thought, I have a couple vague ideas.

As I wrote LOVE ME TO DEATH, more ideas popped up. Some I dismissed pretty quickly, but others stuck with me.

And then there’s Sean Rogan, the hero of the series, who has a mysterious backstory of his own, bringing in more ideas that I wasn’t expecting.

I originally told my publisher that I could write three Lucy books, or more. There’s a natural turning point after book three so that if I didn’t write any more, my readers should be happy. But as I jotted down the next three core ideas, I realized I want to tell many more stories from Lucy’s POV. Now I have six core ideas (the first two books that are done, the third that I’m writing, and the three I’m proposing) and there are still other snippets that my muse is picking out of the creative well. Is she going to make it into the FBI? If she does, where will she be assigned? What squad? How will that impact her and Sean? Who will she work with? Will her past be more a help or a hinderance? What about her relationship with her brother Patrick and the guilt and regrets that remain even after seven years? Can she make it on her own, without her family? Is her growing friendship with Noah going to become an issue with Sean? And then there’s Sean’s brother Liam. Exactly why hasn’t he come back to the US in more than a decade? Why does Noah hate the Rogan family? Is it Liam . . . or Kane, the mercenary in South America? Or is it something else?

So many questions, so many ideas, so many possibilities!

KISS ME, KILL ME, book two in the Lucy Kincaid series, will be out on February 22. Here’s a little teaser from pages 41-42, right after Lucy begins to help Sean with his missing persons case:

She sent Sean the message, then realized she was still in her bathrobe and it was well after noon. She quickly dressed in jeans and a sweater, then jogged down the stairs to make a sandwich. She’d just taken her first bite when she heard the postman drop the mail into the box outside the front door. She retrieved it, sorting through bills and junk mail. In the middle of it all was a letter addressed to Ms. Lucia Kincaid from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Heart racing, excited and nervous, she quickly opened it.

Lucy stared at the single page. She didn’t blink; she didn’t move; she didn’t even read it twice. Her eyes were fixed on one phrase in the middle of legalese:

your application is denied

She refolded the single piece of paper, slipped it back into the envelope, and slowly walked up the stairs to her room, each step a small mountain, hands shaking, sandwich forgotten.

She’d failed. The FBI didn’t want her.

She fell onto her bed and stared at the ceiling, hope washed away along with her future.

She wasn’t going to be an FBI agent. Everything she’d been working toward for nearly seven years, gone. She was twenty-five years old and she had no idea what she was going to do with her life.

It’s not fair!

She squeezed back tears. How dare she even think about fairness! Her life had never been fair, but who in the hell had promised her it would be? Lucy could blame no one but herself. Kate and her friends and family had been fully supportive, doing everything they could to prepare her for the FBI. She’d taken mock written tests, gone through practice interviews, used the recommendations of high-ranking FBI agents to get her in the door—she had more advantages than most applicants, and she’d still failed.

They’d rejected her.

It was on her, only her.

Today I’m giving away any book in my backlist, winner’s choice. Comment and pass it on! Writers . . . do you have too many or too few ideas? Readers . . . how many books are in your To Be Read pile?

BAD TO THE BONE – AVAILABLE NOW
Karin Tabke

Police officer Vaden Holbrook and widow Olivia Connor’s chemistry is off-the-charts hot, but incredible sex isn’t enough for Olivia. She wants it all. Will Vaden’s inability to commit push her into the arms of another man? Or can he overcome his past to become the man Olivia needs, the man he’d like to be? Read More »

PRIDE AND PLEASURE – JANUARY 25
Sylvia Day

Wealth has its dangers…

There are disadvantages to being an heiress, as Eliza Martin knows well. Fortune hunters flock to her, acquaintances lie and pander, and lately, someone is engineering “accidents” to propel her to the altar. But Eliza will not be bullied, and she will get to the bottom of this plot. All she needs is a man to infiltrate her assemblage of suitors and find the culprit. Someone not easily noticed; a proficient dancer, quiet, and even-tempered.

…so do certain men

Thief-taker Jasper Bond is entirely too large, too handsome, and too dangerous. Who would believe that an intellectual like Eliza would be seduced by a man of action? But the combination of her stubbornness and the mystery makes the case one Jasper can’t resist. Client satisfaction is a point of pride and it’s his pleasure to prove he’s just the man she needs after all… Read More »

LOVE IS MURDER – JANUARY 24
Allison Brennan

I Now Pronounce You… Dead

After a tough breakup with her boyfriend, Lucy Kincaid needs a different kind of break. So she heads west to join her brother, an ex-cop, for a long weekend of skiing in the mountains. At a picturesque lodge tucked high in the Sierra Nevada, Lucy finds just what she’s looking for: a peaceful retreat undisturbed by Internet, television, and cell phone distractions. She also finds an unexpected group of newlyweds seeking their own idyllic getaway.

But finding one of her fellow guests dead wasn’t in the brochure. And neither was the overnight snowstorm that leaves the lodge cut off from the outside world. When Lucy’s brother suspects the honeymooner’s death was foul play, he’s mysteriously stricken ill. Now, to keep him and herself alive, it’s up to aspiring FBI agent Lucy Kincaid to figure out which of the lovebirds trapped in the lodge is really a bird of prey… Read More »

Below are answers to some of the common questions about LOVE IS MURDER:

Where can I buy LOVE IS MURDER?
Any e-retailer — wherever you normally buy your e-books. Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble’s Nook are two of the more common e-readers. Other links can be found at the Random House website.

I don’t own an e-reader. Can I still read LOVE IS MURDER?
Yes—if you own a computer. LOVE IS MURDER is available in pdf for those who don’t own e-readers.

Will LOVE IS MURDER be available in print?
At this point, the novella is not scheduled in print format, but may be available in the future. When I know, I’ll post the information on my website and in my newsletter.

Will I miss anything crucial in the Lucy Kincaid series if I don’t read e-books?
LOVE IS MURDER takes place a year before the events in the first Lucy Kincaid book, LOVE ME TO DEATH. It’s a stand-alone mystery with Lucy and her brother Patrick. Nothing that happens in the novella impacts the series.

Before I started seriously writing, I read a minimum of one book a week. Usually two or three books a week, in addition to school or work or raising the kids. When I was on maternity leave with my son in the summer of 2001, I read 77 books in four months. Two of those books — THE THIRD VICTIM by Lisa Gardner and THE SEARCH by Iris Johansen — jumpstarted my dormant writing. I’d put aside writing when I started having kids, because raising kids + working full time = no time for writing. I changed that in March of 2002 by giving up television.

In March of 2003 I had another baby, Brennan #4, (yes, I know how babies are made) and while my maternity leave was shorter (I didn’t have enough accrued sick and vacation time for the full four months), I still only read 4 books in two months. Four. Books. Why? Because I spent all my free time writing.

My reading dwindled down to a book a month, sometimes two. Nowhere near the five books a week I’d been reading in 2001. A few years ago, realizing that I was only reading my die hard, never fail me authors and galleys for blurbs, I committed myself to reading one book a week.

The only reason I can say I read 52 books or more each year for the last three years is because I’ve judged the RITA and the Thriller awards. I AVERAGED one book a week, but I binged–reading 5 books one week, then nothing for a month.

I’ve gotten better about this, though again, I’m back down to two books a month. I’m FIVE BOOKS behind in the JD Robb series. I used to make a personal commitment that I’d read the newest book before the next came out, and now I’m far behind.

I did read the last Lisa Gardner and Tess Gerritsen books the week they came out, but I have Robert Crais’s latest, and haven’t cracked the spine — though it’s Joe Pike and I love Joe Pike.

I buy a lot of books I don’t end up reading. I give many to my mom, and others sit on my shelf glaring at me to open them and read them. I want to. But I get lost in good books. I can’t write, I just want to finish reading the book. Which is why I read a book on every plane trip, because I read fast and if it’s good, I’ll finish it while sitting in the airport with my baggage, or right when I check into the hotel. I read ICE COLD by Tess Gerritsen flying back from Thrillerfest last year, and I had 40 pages when I got home. That night, after the kids went to bed, I finished it. I had to. I wouldn’t have been able to sleep otherwise!

To put me back on track to read one book a week, I decided that I needed a theme. Or, rather, a hobby of sorts. Okay, not so much a new hobby, as it involves reading, but I’ve embarked on a new project: I’m reading crime fiction and suspense “classics” that I missed over the years. Books that I always meant to read, but never got around to.

I started with THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY (1955) by Patricia Highsmith. I never saw the movie, and I had always wanted to read the book. I picked it first because she wrote it in the viewpoint of a sociopath. And she does it extremely well. I’m almost done–hope to finish this weekend. (As well as the old JD Robb I’m trying to finish in my effort to catch up!)

Next up in my classic tales of murder and crime, is A KISS BEFORE DYING (1953) by Ira Levin. Another tale of a sociopath, but this one plotting the murder of his pregnant girlfriend. (Hmm, I’m sensing a theme to my selections!) I picked this because my pal and Murderati blog mate Robert Gregory Browne recommended it a year or two ago. I bought it, then it sat on my shelf. Now, it’s at the top of my TBR pile.

Then, it’s THE SIMPLE ART OF MURDER (1950) by Raymond Chandler. I picked Chandler because I hadn’t read anything by him. I’ve read several Dashiell Hammett books–THE THIN MAN, THE DAIN CURSE, and THE MALTESE FALCON) — but none by his contemporary. I picked this book because it’s a collection of short stories and I’ve been writing (and reading!) a lot of short stories lately. While I hope to get to it before the end of February, because I have a book due in March and a release at the end of February, this might have to wait until April.

And then, I’ll decide which 1940s or 50s crime classic I’ll read next.

What about you? Is there a classic book–anything published before 1960 let’s say–that you’ve always wanted to read but never did? THE ODYSSEY by Homer? (I read it in high school, then had to read THE ILIAD in Latin for third year Latin. I remember the former, but not a word of the latter.) Or THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald? (I read in high school and loved it; I think I was one of the few. It was the voice. I also had a fascination with Evelyn Waugh when I had to read THE LOVED ONE in school. A satire, but it stuck with me for years. When I first drove past Forest Lawn in L.A., 10 years after reading the book, it was the first thing I thought of!) Or maybe TESS OF THE D’URBERVILLES (depressing), ATLAS SHRUGGED by Ayn Rand (brilliant, if a bit over-written–I prefer the simple, straightforward ANTHEM), or THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN by Twain (fabulous story, I’ve read a lot of Twain. I prefer this book to TOM SAWYER, but think I like his short stories the best.)

Something else? What tickles you? What have you always wanted to read but haven’t . . . and don’t want to admit it? I promise, it’s a secret–just between us, here at Murder She Writes. Share, and I’ll enter you in a contest — I’m giving away five copies of LOVE ME TO DEATH to friends! Meaning, you win, you get to pick a friend you want to give my book to. I’ll sign it, credit you with your thoughtfulness, and send it off to your lucky buddy! You get all the credit, and I (hopefully) get a new reader.

I spent Tuesday night with James Ellroy.

Okay, not all night. Just a few hours with Mr. Ellroy and a group of reporters–plus the talented and extremely nice Stephen Schwartz from my alter-blog, Murderati.

The bestselling novelist of 18 books, Mr. Ellroy is most famous for his bestselling novels THE BLACK DAHLIA and L.A. CONFIDENTIAL. He also has a tragic personal story, as he lost his mother in 1958 to murder.

We all met at the Langham Hotel in Pasadena for a bus tour for Mr. Ellroy to promote his new television series, “James Ellroy’s LA: City of Demons” on the Investigation Discovery. The purpose was to hold the press captive for three hours to sell the show, while also giving us a tour of some famous L.A. crime scenes. During the drive from Pasadena to Beverly Hills, Mr. Ellroy gave his keynote, a no-holds-barred, vivid, larger-than-life presentation into his past and the upcoming series. He was both arrogant and self-deprecating, an odd combination for a true original, and absolutely entertaining. More than that, he knows what he’s talking about–he’s a walking history book about Los Angeles of the past, and crime in L.A. specifically.

I probably have no need to justify why I went on the bus–Ellroy+crime scenes=fun. But I also like different adventures because you never know when and where a nugget of an idea will form. So I went with my eyes and ears open, to absorb more than anything.

We drove by several houses where murders occurred and through many neighborhoods, including where Ellroy grew up near El Monte. During the drive, he told story after story–mostly teasers about the show, but all related to the seedy underbelly of L.A.–and answered dozens of questions.

We exited the bus once–in front of Lana Turner’s old house in Beverly Hills. The house where Johnny Stompanato, her lover and abuser, died.

I can’t retell the story with Ellroy’s signature style, which recounts the public lives and secret scandals of the 50s and 60s L.A. In a nutshell, Stompanato was a brute and a criminal, and he threatened Lana Turner whenever she tried to get rid of him. Lana didn’t take Stompanato out in public–it wouldn’t fit her image–and took her daughter, Cheryl, to the Academy Awards where she won Best Actress for Peyton Place. Apparently, Stompanato was furious about that, and shortly after the awards ceremony had a huge fight. Cheryl, fearful for her mother and herself, took a knife from the kitchen and walked into her mother’s bedroom, where Stompanato was yelling at her. He turned and impaled himself on the knife. The homicide was ruled “justified.” In the Investigation Discovery series, Ellroy interviews Cheryl, now in her 60s, about that night.

We also stopped in front of Rebecca Schaeffer’s apartment. This young, talented actress was shot to death by her stalker, an obsessed fan named Robert John Bardo, spawning the first anti-stalking laws in California. She was 21 in 1989 when she was murdered. I remember the tragic case vividly–I’m sure many MSW readers do. Bardo’s in prison for life, but Rebecca is dead, and that just doesn’t seem right to me.

Ellroy himself is a character, and while a lively speaker who loves alliteration (he writes about the series, “You’ll get in-depth interviews with witless witnesses, preening prosecutors, insipid investigators, and jaded jurors”), personally he’s an introvert who doesn’t like crowds, doesn’t own a cell phone or computer, watches no television and few movies, and prefers to be alone in the dark to think and listen to Beethoven. In his words, “Thinking, brooding, planning.” He’s unapologetically conservative and an apologist for LAPD, and emcee of the Los Angeles Police Historical Society’s Jack Webb awards which recognizes supporters of law enforcement. (Yes, Jack Webb is from Dragnet.)

One reporter asked what he loved about Beethoven and Ellroy’s response was quietly passionate, and very earnest–in some ways more real than anything else he’d said in his presentation because it wasn’t an expected question. Beethoven’s music is a gift from God, that became even more amazing as Beethoven became deaf. Akin to a miracle, and I’m sure many would agree. But the eloquence and heart he spoke with told me that Beethoven was his passion, making Ellroy seem, to me, less a showman and more human. And after that everything I’d listened to up to that point took on a more complex and deeper meaning.

Ellroy, who admits he doesn’t really like people very much, likes the police as a group because they are the only organized group of people who hate the men who prey on women and children as much as he does.

I could go on for another thousand words about the bus ride, but I can’t do Ellroy justice. I will be watching the show, because it’s sure to be over-the-top and fun, while also biting and authentic. I’ll even watch though he told everyone that he’s “over” serial killers stories and doesn’t like them, dashing my hopes of getting a future book endorsement from him. (As long as there are plenty of other readers who still like what I write!)

Several little things stuck in my mind that I’ve been mulling over–tidbits that may find themselves in future books.

The first thing was his comment that events change the focus of investigations. Specifically, that some murders go unsolved because of completely unrelated events that divert the attention of the citizenry. For example, the case of Stephanie Gorman. Ellroy surmised that the case would have been solved had she not been murdered a week before the Watts Riots, which diverted media attention and police attention. He cited a few other cases that fell into that category, and I started thinking about that as well. Crimes before and after 9/11, for example. Or Hurricane Katrina. When the world seems to be falling apart around you, when hundreds or thousands are dead or dying, homeless and sick, how does anyone have the time or resources to focus on just one murder? It truly had me considering a myriad of ideas, just little threads that someday will make sense to me.

Ellroy is obsessed with understanding misogynistic violence. His mother, Jean Hilliker, who was raped and murdered; Elizabeth Short; other unsolved cases around Los Angeles. As he said, “What moves men to such rage?” Nearly everything he writes about involves, ultimately, the question of Why? Why do people kill? Why do men rape and murder women? Why do they exhibit such rage in the murders?

The why of crime definitely motivates my writing, and I suspect many other crime fiction writers. We want to understand, we have an almost primal need to understand why people do what they do, especially violence. Because we truly don’t understand, so we’re constantly seeking ways to get it. If we understand, maybe we can stop it. But can we understand the horrid and unspeakable crimes perpetuated on the innocent?

In fiction, we can right wrongs we see in everyday life. We can fight the bad guys and win. We can solve crimes and give justice to our fictional victims, maybe as a little lie to ourselves that we’re really fighting for justice in real life. It’s fiction, but it’s fiction that explores the very best and very worst in people.

For those interested in James Ellroy’s LA: City of Demons show, it premieres on January 19, 2011, at 10 p.m. on Investigation Discovery.

What do you think about true crime shows? True crime books? I’m fond of IN COLD BLOOD by Truman Capote simply because it was the first true crime book I read. I’m partial to books about criminal psychology, probably in my search to understand the why of violent crime. What are some of your favorites? Share with the rest of the class and you’ll be in the running for one of two $20 gift cards (to Amazon or BN.com) to celebrate LOVE ME TO DEATH hitting #20 on the New York Times bestseller list!

Characters make the story, and nothing is more important to a successful series than good characters. This is doubly important for a romantic suspense series. There are very few out there where the hero and heroine have a growing relationship over the course of several books. JD Robb’s IN DEATH series is perhaps the best known example. 32 books in (which doesn’t include numerous short stories and novellas!) and Eve Dallas and Roarke are still interesting characters who are working through their conflicts without losing sight of the fact that they love, admire and respect each other. All while battling the bad guys and solving a mystery.

Lucy Kincaid has a well-documented backstory. In FEAR NO EVIL, she was kidnapped on graduation day and raped live on the Internet and would have been killed if not for her brother Dr. Dillon Kincaid and rogue FBI Agent Kate Donovan. Fast forward nearly seven years and Lucy now has a Masters from Georgetown in Criminal Psychology and a degree in computer science, with a specialty in cybercrime. She’s interned for the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Arlington County Sheriff’s Department, and the D.C. Medical Examiners Office. She has her life planned out–every job was selected to make her more appealing to the FBI, she knows exactly what she wants to do for them, and she has a clear plan to get there.

Sean Rogan has a more interesting and, dare I say it, mysterious past. He’s 29, and like Lucy the youngest of a large family. Unlike the Kincaids, his family wasn’t close. When Sean was 14, his parents were killed in a plane crash and his older brother Duke came home to raise him. The other three Rogan offspring all live out of the country. They all have obedience to authority issues, except for Duke, and Sean has gotten into a whole bunch of trouble over the years. He’s broken a lot of laws, all for the right reason, and accepted the consequences.

But instead of telling you about the hero of the Lucy Kincaid series, I thought I’d illustrate his personalities through excerpts. It was hard to pick pivotal scenes that don’t give away spoilers, but I think these work! (Though if you don’t like excerpts from the middle of the book, don’t read on.)

In LOVE ME TO DEATH, Sean is running his own investigation into the murder of a convicted sex offender parallel to the FBI—and is about to be called on the carpet for it. This scene from the middle of the book gives readers a clue as to why Sean is distrustful of law enforcement. Lucy is at work while Sean goes to Dillon Kincaid and Kate Donovan’s house. Dillon is Lucy’s brother, a forensic psychiatrist, and Kate is an FBI Agent who teaches cybercrime at Quantico. And my long-time readers will know profiler Hans Vigo, now an assistant director at FBI Headquarters, and close friend to the Kincaid family. Hans has been a secondary character in many of my books, starting with THE PREY.

Sean followed Kate down the hall. Like Lucy, she looked exhausted. Her hair was still damp from her shower, and thick sections fell in her face. She impatiently tucked them behind her ears.

Dillon was sitting at the kitchen table reading a thick file. A man of about fifty with glasses, a slight paunch, and graying hair sat across from Dillon.

Dillon glanced up. “Sean,” he said, gesturing to the stranger, “this is a good friend of ours, Dr. Hans Vigo. He’s FBI.”

“Vigo.” Sean knew that name. “You’re the profiler?”

“Good memory.” Hans shook Sean’s hand. “We haven’t met.”

“No, but my brother Duke—everyone at RCK— speaks highly of you.”

“How is Duke?” Hans asked.

“Same as always.” Sean had been inching closer to see what Dillon was reading.

Kate stood next to Sean and said, “It’s Fran Buckley’s personnel file from the Bureau, Mr. Nosy.”

“Is that why you asked me here?”

“No, Noah Armstrong wants to talk to you.”

Sean abruptly turned to her. “You’re setting me up to talk to a Fed?”

It was Hans who answered. “You were seen on a surveillance tape entering a restaurant owned by Sergey Yuran. Considering his name has come up in the course of this investigation, we need to know what he said.”

Sean frowned. “If I learned something that would have helped, I would have shared the information with Agent Armstrong on Saturday.”

Sean didn’t feel comfortable talking to the Fed about something that could get him in hot water—he stood by his decision. He considered calling Duke for advice on whether to pull in a lawyer, but quickly dismissed the thought. He wasn’t going to lean on his brother every time he came head to head with law enforcement. He was a big boy, he would make his own decisions, and he knew he hadn’t been out of line in talking to Sergey Yuran. There was no way Yuran would have spoken to a cop, and if it was true he was under surveillance, Armstrong wouldn’t even be able to get in there. Shaking the trafficker down for the murder of a scumbag like Morton was way down on the priority list from trafficking in guns and human beings—which told Sean that Noah wanted this meeting off the record, hence here at Kate’s house. Maybe the Fed wasn’t the “by-the-book” hardass Sean had thought when he met him on Saturday.

Yet, every time Sean had spoken to cops in the past it had come back to bite him in the ass.

Before he’d been kicked out of Stanford, Sean discovered one of his professors liked child porn. Sean exposed his repulsive obsession so everyone would know what kind of pervert he really was. The Feds promised nothing would happen to Sean if he told the truth about how he’d hacked into the professor’s system and what initially tipped him off. Sean told the truth. Next thing he knew, Stanford expelled him for hacking into the school database. Duke had said the FBI did what they could, and Sean was damn lucky he wasn’t in prison. They’d agreed to expunge the record; however, Sean was certain his FBI file was an inch thick. The incident with the sick Stanford professor wasn’t the only time he’d been in hot water when trying to right wrongs.

Kate said, “Sean, you’d better watch yourself around Armstrong. He’s good, and he doesn’t like interference.”

“I didn’t interfere with anything.”

“Showing up at Ralston’s apartment wasn’t interfering?”

“I’m not going to rehash this. You know why I was there. I didn’t screw with his investigation.”

Hans said, “No one is looking to get you in trouble, Sean.”

Sean didn’t know whether to believe him, but Duke thought Hans Vigo walked on water, and that couldn’t be said of a lot of people, so Sean gave the profiler the benefit of the doubt.

“All right, but if Armstrong arrests me, you’d better be the one to post bail.”

Hans smiled. “I give you my word.”

In KISS ME, KILL ME, Sean and Lucy are looking for a missing teenager in New York City. A habitual runaway, they don’t know if Kirsten has run away again—or is in danger. When Sean tracks down a guy who partied with her the night she disappeared, he wants to make sure the college kid learns a lesson.

Sean waited across from Ryan’s apartment to sure that Trey didn’t circle around and go back. Sean considered going up himself—he didn’t think Ryan knew anything more, but he needed a lesson in how to treat women. Trey hadn’t quite figured out what “a little action” at a rave meant, but Sean knew exactly what Ryan was doing. Had he been the one to drug her? Would he do it again to another girl?

Sean crossed the street and went back up to Ryan’s apartment. He didn’t need to be buzzed in—the buzzer was a standard electronic gadget that Sean easily bypassed.

Ryan was leaving with a basket of laundry. “Hey,” he said, nervous.

Sean grabbed the basket and dropped it to the floor. He got in Ryan’s face until Ryan backed up against the wall.

“I don’t like you,” Sean said. “You use women without a thought.”

“I-I d-didn’t,” Ryan stuttered. “Sh-sh-she was will- ing. I swear.”

“Did you drug her?”

“No!”

“I know she was high on something.”

“Everyone was. The drinks were spiked. It was a really wild party, but I swear, I didn’t give her any- thing. I wouldn’t do that! P-p-please believe me.”

Ryan tried to squirm away and Sean put his forearm across the skinny kid’s chest and held him there. “You may not have given her a mickey, but you sure took advantage of it.”

“I’m s-sorry!”

“I have a lot of friends. I’m putting the word out on you. If you ever show up at another rave and take advantage of another girl, and I find out, you won’t have a dick left to screw around with.”

Sean turned and walked away, confident that the kid believed everything he’d said.

And with Lucy, Sean is determined to teach her how to have fun. Lucy is serious most of the time, an “all work, no play” kind of woman. And Sean is a “work hard, play hard” kind of guy. He has just taught her to ice skate, both of them unaware that someone is watching them from the crowded outdoor rink. From LOVE ME TO DEATH:

“I’m proud of you, Luce.”

She cleared her throat. “Why?”

“New experiences.”

“I suppose I’m willing to try anything once.”

“Once?” He frowned and looked worried. “You’re not having fun?”

“I’m having fun. Much more than I thought I would. You’re pretty amazing.” He grinned and winked at her, then kissed her cheek and nipped her ear playfully.

“I am, aren’t I?” he teased.

“My, what a large ego you have!”

“All the better to impress you with, my dear.”

Lucy raised an eyebrow and glanced around Sean to make sure no one was in their way. She turned suddenly, in a full circle, surprising him, and he tried to regain control, but she’d gotten her “skating legs” and spun him until he fell on his butt. She grabbed the railing to keep from falling and laughed.

“So that’s how it is.” He grinned. “You’d better watch yourself, Ms. Kincaid, because payback is a bitch.”

“I can hardly wait.” She surprised herself with how easy it was to joke with Sean.

He got up easily enough and pushed her against the railing. His blue eyes sparkled with humor as he said, “You won’t know when or where, princess.”

“I’m so scared,” she said, suppressing a giggle.

He kissed her, opening his mouth slightly, warming her lips, sending a shiver through her body. His hands were on her face, his leather gloves cold but she barely noticed. He held her there, holding the kiss. His body pressed against hers and she was effectively trapped against the sidewall but didn’t panic, didn’t feel anything but the powerful presence of Sean Rogan.

He sighed, put his forehead against hers and whispered, “How about some hot chocolate?”

She nodded, because suddenly she couldn’t talk.

They left the rink and returned their skates. “Thank you, Sean,” Lucy said and kissed him spontaneously. “I haven’t had this much fun in a long time.”

LOVE ME TO DEATH is on sale today! It’s almost surreal, because I’ve been waiting for this date for a long time. I’m currently writing book three in the series, where Sean is the one in jeopardy

And don’t forget the contest Toni is running! The rules are here.