Valley of the Shadow

by Charlotte Hughes

Overview

From award-winning author Charlotte Hughes, a classic tale of romantic suspense finally available again.

Crime reporter Meg Gentry returns to her hometown where she lands a job at the local paper. But the town's tranquillity is shattered by the suicide of Meg's predecessor and the unearthed skeleton of an unidentified woman who, as the evidence indicates, was murdered.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780380784547
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	11/30/2004
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	4.19(w) x 6.75(h) x 0.88(d)

About the Author

Charlotte Hughes lives on Fripp Island in South Carolina.

Read an Excerpt

Prologue

A narrow, twisting mountain road at midnight.

Dark as a sinner's heart; treacherous as his deeds.

A slivered moon, a broken headlight, a vintage pickup truck

Make slow work of the journey.

From the bush along the road

Eyes glitter.

The driver suddenly brakes And shudders As his grim cargo rolls across the bed of the pickup truck.

A deer darts into the road;

Freezes, caught in the glare of headlights.

Eyes, fearful and trapped.

The man sees another pair of eyes

Horrified and bulging

As he'd closed his hands around her lovely throat And silenced her forever.

Eyes that seem to watch him even now

Through the layers of the quilt he'd wrapped her in.

Her burial shroud.

He struggles with the urge to look over his shoulder.

Will he find those eyes watching him?

Will he see them every time he tries to sleep?

Only one answer.

Bury her deep.

Editorial Reviews

Hughes, the author of And After That, the Dark, delivers an entertaining and fast-paced murder mystery. Meg Gentry, former police reporter in Atlanta, is trying to turn her life around after a difficult divorce. Having traded her car for an old green camper, she heads home to small-town Tennessee. But things aren't any quieter in Appalachia: on her second day at the local newspaper, she's promoted after an editor dieseither by suicide or murder. After being threatened by her brother-in-law, rescuing a young woman trying to escape her evangelical family and finding her camper burned to the ground, feisty Meg tries to find out what's happening. Hughes's snappy, dialogue and strong writing aptly describe the small Southern town and its attitudes towards a girl corrupted by the big city. She's one of the more interesting reporter-detectives to come around in a while. Here's hoping that Hughes has another Gentry caper out soon. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly