Nykanen, Mark

Search Angel

A riveting suspense thriller about the reuniting of birth mothers with their adopted children and the madman who preys on them fter two highly praised psychological thrillers, Mark Nykanen returns with his most spellbinding story yet. Suzanne Trayle is a 'Search Angel' whose success in tracking down and reuniting birth mothers with their adopted children has earned her national fame. Known as 'The Orphan's Private Eye,' Suzanne has reunited thousands of mothers with their children, but has failed to find the son she put up for adoption thirty years ago.

Hush

Hush opens with the gruesome murder of 7-year-old Davy Boyce's mother by his stepfather, Chet. Chet kills the woman with a straight razor after she confronts him about his abusive behavior towards Davy. We soon find that Chet has married Davy's mother only to be close to Davy, who he molests throughout the book. Once she's dead, Chet packs up the trailer and takes Davy to the remote, Oregon lumber town of Bentman. That's when Hush really takes off.

Chet's plan to have Davy all to himself is quickly derailed when Davy becomes both an elective mute and a biter. He is taken out of school and placed in the Bentman Children's Center where he meets 38-year-old Celia Griswold, the art therapist assigned to his case. Celia has her own problems. Her cheating husband, childless marriage, and uncooperative boss drive her to develop a bond with Davy, and the boy's sinister artwork leads her to suspect Chet of the crimes he's committed. Chet does not plan to give up "his boy," and launches an assault on Celia to ensure that he doesn't have to.

Edgar- and Emmy-award-winning journalist Mark Nykanen has written a debut thriller that is sure to chill even the most weathered mystery fan. Davy, Chet, and Celia hold the story together as both fascinating and believable characters. There are moments in the story that are difficult to believe, but despite its few weak spots, Hush is almost impossible to put down. --Mara Friedman

Hush is a stirring thriller.... [a] compelling variation on Thomas Harris's Silence of the Lambs ... Nykanen has seasoned his novel, as well, with a dash of John Irving-esque symbolism and environmental protest.

The Bone Parade

shley Stassler is not your average artist. He has been wildly praised for a series of bronze sculptures that group families together, depicting them in moments of excruciating physical and emotional pain-but the art world has no clue as to how he creates such authentic, gruesome, seemingly tortured human representations. He assigns each family a number, and now he's up to number nine. What's in store for family #9? Cruelty and savagery that you can't even imagine.... The Bone Parade introduces a villain who is as methodical, calculating, and detached as any found in the best fiction. It's gripping. It's chilling. You might be too afraid to read on, but you'll never be able to tear your eyes away.