Judas Child

The Story

From the author of the Mallory novels comes a thriller as seductive and 'blazingly original' (Kirkus Reviews) as anything in contemporary suspense fiction.Carol O'Connell has been consistently praised as 'a gifted storyteller' (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel), the author of 'stylishly innovative' (San Francisco Chronicle), 'immensely affecting' (Miami Herald) novels with an 'irresistible narrative force' (Publishers Weekly).Now, she gives us a stunning new creation. It is three days before Christmas, and two young girls have disappeared from the local academy. This hasn't happened for fifteen years, since Rouge Kendall's twin sister was murdered. The killer was found, but now Rouge, twenty-five and a policeman, is forced to wonder: was he really the one? Also wondering is a former classmate named Ali Cray, a forensic psychologist with scars of her own. The pattern is the same, she says: a child called out to meet a friend. The friend is the bait, the judas child, and is quickly killed. But the primary victim lives longer ... until Christmas Day.Rouge doesn't want to hear this. He's spent the last fifteen years trying to avoid the memories: drinking alone, laying low, washing out of school and a promising first career. Now he might abandon law enforcement, too -- but something won't let him, not yet. A little girl has haunted his dreams all these years -- and he has three days finally to put her to rest.Filled with the rich prose, resonant characters, a