An exciting novel of passion, murder, small-town secrets, and scandal brought to light.

Shy, studious Irene Stenson and wild, privileged Pamela Webb had been the best of friends for one short high school summer. Their friendship ended the night Pamela dropped Irene off at home-and Irene walked in to discover her parents' bodies on the kitchen floor. It was ruled a murder-suicide, and Irene fled the northern California town of Dunsley. But seventeen years later, when Pamela sends a cryptic e-mail asking for help, Irene returns to her hometown to find her old friend has died suddenly, leaving behind a lot of ugly, unanswered questions.

Caught up in a firestorm of desperate deceit and long-buried secrets, Irene knows it would probably be smarter to just pack up and leave Dunsley behind again, but her reporter's instinct-and her own hunger to know the truth-compel her to extend her stay at the local lodge. Even more compelling is the man who runs the place-a hazel-eyed ex-Marine who's as used to giving orders as Irene is to ignoring them. Luke Danner can see the terror beneath Irene Stenson's confident exterior-and he is intent on protecting her. But he is also driven by passions of his own, and together they will risk far more than local gossip to sort out what happened to Pamela Webb, and what really happened on that long-ago summer night. . . .

Jayne Ann Krentz is the author of over 122 romances, including 27 New York Times bestsellers under various pen names. Before beginning her writing career, she earned a B.A. in History at the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC) and an M.A. in Library Science from San Jose State University. She then launched a successful career as a corporate and academic librarian, during which time she worked at Duke University's library. Krentz began writing serial romances in the late 1970s for MacFadden and Dell Candlelight Ecstasy. She moved on to write for Silhouette and Harlequin before turning exclusively to writing novels in the early 1990s. In total, there are over 23 million copies in print of her books. In addition to writing fiction, Krentz is the editor and a contributor to Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women: Romance Writers on the Appeal of the Romance, a non-fiction essay collection that won the prestigious Susan Koppelman Award for Feminist Studies. Krentz has also been awarded the Jane Austen Commemorative Medal from Romantic Times magazine for her efforts in educating the public on behalf of romantic fiction. In addition to writing, Krentz sits on the Advisory Board for the Writers Program at the University of Washington Extension Program. She also enjoys vegetarian cooking and lives in Seattle with her husband.