The Lauren Vance files 1: The Monster'sblueprint

THE LAUREN VANCE FILES: THE MONSTER'S BLUEPRINT A new chemical compound bought every month. A new severed piece discovered in the lonely mountains every week. And her daughter is still in his hands. Twenty-eight-year-old office worker Marcus Brody vanished six months ago without a trace. No witnesses, no digital footprint, and a case stalled cold. At the same time, Chloe—the eighteen-year-old daughter of Detective Lauren Vance—enters college and falls for Julian Frost, a captivating senior with a soft-spoken, intellectual charm. It should have been nothing more than a harmless young romance. But Lauren’s investigative instincts kick in when small, disturbing details begin to surface: a sickening stench clinging to the hallway of Julian’s dilapidated apartment, a monthly paper trail of heavy-duty neutralizing chemicals, and a dark, unaccounted-for gap in his past. Lauren launches a covert investigation. What she fails to realize, however, is that Julian Frost isn't the one being hunted. He is the one laying the trap. When Chloe suddenly disappears, a blood-stained saw delivered to the precinct is merely the opening gambit of a twisted psychological game. Forced into a desperate race against time, Lauren must unearth deeply buried secrets before it’s too late—unaware that every move she makes has already been drawn into the monster’s blueprint. How do you save the prey when the killer has already calculated your every move? Genre: Psychological Thriller / Crime Fiction / Procedural Suspense