"Death's Shadow" Excerpt



How far would you go to bring your twin’s killer to justice?

No one notices when Brianna Denton goes missing every weekend. With no immediate family or close friends left, being alone is something with which she has become well-acquainted, but when her sister is murdered, she finds herself on a lone mission to identify the killer.

According to the authorities, ‘no body, no case.’ Brianna’s quest to find her sister’s murderer despite the police department’s refusal to help, draws her into a life of drugs, alcohol, and prostitutionthe very elements that led her twin to the shadows and rat holes of the underbelly of North Beach.


Drawn into the dark underground society to face Tatianna’s killer, Brianna is about to come face-to-face with her own shocking destiny. As she unearths long-buried secrets, the tight edge of reality comes to light, challenging her tenuous grip on life as she knows it. Finding the answers she seeks could lead her to an even darker place.





She lost sight of her purpose as she fell, tumbled—out of control—into the depths of her own personal Hell. There would be no sleep tonight, restless or otherwise. Brianna stepped out onto the fire escape. Tabby curled around her feet as usual while she sat, gazing and thinking back to her arrival in the city. It seemed so long ago now. So much had happened.

She remembered feeling compelled to come down from grad school. When she came to the city, she came to bury her sister. Images of her sister’s face flashed before her, scarred and bloody, a reminder of her mission, her purpose. When she arrived at the apartment, the first thing she did was shower and taxi to the hospital to make arrangements for her sister, but no one knew anything about her twin, nothing about Tatianna Denton.

Admitting had no records. Nothing in the ER. The ambulance service knew nothing. She had checked everywhere, unable to shake a strange feeling of déjà vu. Tatianna hadn’t been dropped at the doors to the ER, so where was she? She had no doubt her sister had been killed. She felt it, a deep hollow inside her, and yet there was no body. Even now, no body had been found, and Brianna was starting to believe it never would. Horror movies were too often based on true stories, and the ways to get rid of bodies were endless.

She remembered feeling exhausted. She had raced down from Davis, scared, panicked, three o’clock in the morning so anything could have been truth, she’d thought at the time, but there was one thing she knew for sure, even then – she would have to come to terms with her sister’s death, and the only way to find closure was to find her killer and make him pay.




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