Verwandte Artikel zu The First Cut

9780345486172: The First Cut
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 034548617X ISBN 13: 9780345486172
Verlag: Ballantine, 2006

Inhaltsangabe

For two minutes she was dead.

The assailant was vicious, the attack brutal-and it left her lifeless . . . until her pulse fluttered and she jolted awake. Now, a year later, detective Nan Vining is still questioning her strength, her safety, even her sanity: Can she ever again be the cop-and mother-she was before? And will her attacker someday return to finish the job, before she can track him down herself?

Shaky but determined, Vining rejoins the Pasadena PD, only to confront a murder case that strikes close to home: A slain policewoman has been discovered beneath the Colorado Street Bridge, her body bruised, her throat slit. Even as Vining struggles to recover her standing within the department, she can't help but feel profoundly drawn to the murdered officer, Frankie Lynde-and she is deeply troubled by the baffling otherworldly visions that haunt her waking hours. Are these mere fever dreams? Or could they be, as Vining's daughter insists, messages from beyond the grave?

Digging deeper into Lynde's past, Vining discovers clues that set her on the twisted trail of a killer as ruthless as he is depraved-a predator whose methods and madness recall those of her own attacker. Amid a rising tide of danger, she pushes herself to bold new limits, desperate to avenge the murder of a fellow police officer . . . and to reclaim the life she lost a year ago.

Packed with suspense and action, this pulse-pounding novel will hold you breathless from the first cut to the last.

Praise for The First Cut

" The First Cut should immediately establish Dianne Emley in the front ranks of thriller writers. . . . A great read." -Michael Connelly

"Gritty, intense, and hard-edged, The First Cut is first-rate." -Tess Gerritsen

"Action-packed, with plenty of suspense and enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing long into the night." -Lisa Jackson

"An edge-of-your-seat plot . . . nicely developed characters and genuine suspense elevate this impressive crime debut." - Kirkus Reviews

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Dianne Emley was born in Los Angeles, California. Except for her junior year in college when she studied at the Université de Bordeaux, France, she has always lived in and around Los Angeles. She has a BA in philosophy and an MBA in marketing, both from UCLA. She has held jobs as varied as drill press operator, polling place recruiter, California Department of Consumer Affairs complaint handler, clothing boutique buyer, egg and poultry industry marketer, software company sales manager, and technical writer. While having traveled the world, she lives five miles from where she grew up with her husband Charlie and two cats and is gleefully happy with her favorite and last profession: crime writer. Visit the author’s website at www.DianneEmley.com.

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One

No one knew her here. no one she knew would show up at this joint near LAX where the music was loud enough to muffle the roar of jets. There were usually no cops here. She could make a cop no matter how good the cover. She was an attractive female alone in a strip club but no one would bother her. Her uniform, gun, and badge repelled that sort of nonsense. A guy she figured for the manager asked if he could be of assistance. She said she was waiting for someone. She would only be there a couple of minutes. Thanks. He retreated to his stool at the bar and was giving her a dirty look. A police officer had a chilling effect on business. A female cop was especially vexing. Frankie Lynde enjoyed the power she had to disturb this tough guy and she kept on her game face, her take-no-prisoners face. It was fun. A prelude to the night of fun ahead.

It was midnight. She had finished her shift, letting the last guy she could have collared for solicitation go home with a warning because the arrest and the paperwork would have made her late. That was okay with her team. One was taking off the next morning for the Colorado River with his family. The others were just plain ready to resume their lives. The john was scared out of his wits anyway. He was a clean-cut family man kind of guy who probably had a job where people looked up to him. Frankie doubted he'd ever again seek action along that stretch of Sunset near Gower.

In the station locker room, she'd taken off the silver wig and leather miniskirt. She'd unzipped and peeled off the over-the-knee boots she'd bought at Frederick's purple flagship store on Hollywood Boulevard. She didn't have to go to such effort to costume herself. The other female undercover cops who posed as streetwalkers wore tight jeans and belly shirts, looking as if they could be waiting for their boyfriends to pick them up to go to the movies, like many whores working Sunset's east end. For the whores, their sexy-but-regular-girl clothing bolstered their innocent excuses when cops questioned them about why they were loitering. "My car broke down over there." "I had a fight with my boyfriend and he took off and I'm gonna see if he's at his mom's house over here. Around the corner. Up there."

Frankie liked to dress like a hooker. She had a dozen wigs and outfits. She told the other vice detectives that by changing her look, the hookers and johns wouldn't make her. She told about having picked up the same john three times, wearing three different wigs. There were rumors around the department that Frankie got into her role a little too much. She didn't deny it. It was pointless, made her look weak, and gave the rumors credibility. Her numbers spoke louder than talk. Any night she was on the street, she made three times as many collars as the other female officers. She knew how to stand with her legs apart, moving her hips back and forth as if she had an itch.

She was tall and good-looking. Too good-looking to be standing on a street corner. If she were a hooker for real, she'd be a highly paid call girl, not a streetwalker. The johns never put that together. They saw. They wanted. They pulled over. When they started talking specific fees for specific favors, she'd lean toward their car to give them a glimpse of her cleavage and yank the hem of her skirt with both hands, the signal for her backup to move in for the arrest.

Bottom line, she roped them in, that's all they needed to know at the station. They had no idea how much truth there was to the rumors. That was for Frankie to know and the others never to find out.

At home, she'd peeled off the metallic tube top that she had not removed in the locker room in front of the others. She didn't want glances and whispers about what she was hiding there. She'd scrubbed off the heavy makeup and shampooed and blow-dried her long, blond hair. She'd p

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Verlag
Ballantine
Erscheinungsdatum
2006
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
034548617X
ISBN 13 
9780345486172
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Anzahl der Seiten
352
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Verantwortliche Person
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