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Karen Robards Newsletter

June 2008

Greetings From Karen
OBSESSION: Paperback Now in Stores!

Special Sneak Peek: OBSESSION

Now in Stores: GUILTY!
Newsletter Contest -- Win A Signed Copy of MORNING SONG!

KarenRobards.com
About the Books
Guestbook
Greetings From Karen
Dear Friends,

I wanted to let you know that OBSESSION came to stores in paperback yesterday, so everyone who missed it in hardcover can now run right out and buy a copy. I don't want you to miss it! Booklist called it "riveting...one of bestselling Robards' best", Midwest Book Review called it "a stunning and powerful tour-de-force thriller", Publishers Weekly called it a "page-turner" and The Stuart News/Port St. Lucie News (FL) described it as "a psychological thriller that will keep readers on the edge of their seats." I personally love it, and I hope you will, too.

Okay, enough with the promotion. I'm trying to do a more frequent newsletter, four times a year, so you'll be getting one of these more often. This time, as always, there is and has been a lot going on in our lives. Last time I wrote, I told you that we were hit by a tornado. This time, believe it or not, it was an earthquake! Around the first of May, about five in the morning, we were all sleeping snug in our beds when the house started to shake. I woke up (my husband and sons, who might stir if a siren went off in their ears, didn't) to find that our bed was vibrating. Blinking, I stared at the ceiling in disbelief while thoughts of ghosts and demonic possession (the night before I'd watched a DVD of the The Exorcist) flitted through my head. Then I noticed that the chest was shaking too, and the chairs and the - well, all the furniture. All the house. Yikes!

I was just getting my head around "earthquake" (we live in Kentucky - we don't get earthquakes) when I heard a hideous squawk, followed by a loud thud. My parrot! He sleeps in his night cage in our master bathroom (he spends his days in my office), and something had clearly happened to him. (Cat? Heart attack? Who knew?) Just as I jumped out of bed, ready to yell "earthquake" at the top of my lungs (for all the good that would do), the shaking stopped. The earthquake was over, and come to find out the only casualty was - my poor parrot's tail. Apparently he had been shaken from his perch (he sleeps like the dead, too), fallen to the floor of the cage and gotten his tail feathers caught in one of his toys on the way down. Feathers were strewn all over the cage and he was climbing groggily up the side muttering "Bad bird! Bad, bad bird!" when I reached him. As of right now, little prickly feathers are growing back in on his bare behind. We all laugh at him behind his back.

Since then, we've had Derby (we throw a huge annual Derby party for kids), finals and, for our second son Christopher, high school graduation. A little excitement, a little humor, a little sadness (because Christopher is going off to college and we'll miss him) - that's how life in our house rolls these days.

Here's hoping yours is going well.

Best wishes,

Karen

OBSESSION: Paperback Now in Stores!
Katharine Lawrence has no idea what hit her. The attack came out of nowhere.  Only hours earlier she had been enjoying a girls-only weekend with an old college friend. Now she finds herself lying bound and gagged on her kitchen floor, staring with terrified eyes at her friend Lisa while two masked gunmen search her house for -- what?  She doesn't know. She only knows that, unless they can escape, whatever it is could end up getting both her and Lisa killed.

But Katharine's nightmare is only just beginning. When she awakens in a Washington hospital, her nose crushed, her body battered, her brain tells her things aren't right -- and it's not the attack that's disorienting her. She doesn't recognize herself when she looks in the mirror: her slim body, her manicured hands, her blond bob. And the smiling, handsome doctor at her bedside -- Dr. Dan Howard -- is familiar, but in a totally unfamiliar way. Perhaps the trauma of the attempt on her life has given her some kind of weird amnesia. She's twenty-nine, the special assistant to the head of the CIA, and she's lucky to be alive. She also knows she can trust no one.

Acting on instinct, Katharine runs for her life, with Dan, her new-found protector, at her side. By turns grateful and unnerved by his presence, and unable to shake a feeling of profound dread, she allows Dan to spirit her to a secluded safe house. Instead of finding a haven, they stumble into a tangled web of government conspiracy, leaving Katharine confused, frightened, and desperate to uncover the truth. As the pair is drawn further into this shadowy world where almost nothing is as it seems, as fear gives way to a firestorm of attraction, the cat-and-mouse game grows more deadly, and soon both of their lives are at stake.

- Click here to buy OBSESSION.

Click here to read more about OBSESSION.

Special Sneak Peek: OBSESSION

As last thoughts before dying went it lacked something, and Katharine Lawrence knew it. Still, there it was: her kitchen floor was filthy.

Lying on her stomach on the hard, cold tiles with her wrists duct-taped together behind her back, she was up close and personal with the slick, smooth expanse of glazed twelve-inch terra cotta squares in a way she had never been before. That meant there was no missing the greasy smears on the surface, as if something oily had been recently spilled and not so carefully wiped up. Plus, there were small, muddy paw prints - the flat round face of her Himalayan cat, Muffy, flashed into her mind - along with some dried black-ish droplets that smelled like barbecue sauce and a random assortment of unidentifiable scuffs, stains and  dirt.

For God’s sake, didn’t she possess a mop?

“I’m going to ask you one more time: where is it?”

The question was growled with cold menace some three feet above her head by a tall, muscular man in a black ski mask who leaned over her prone form.  It was punctuated by a ham-like fist twisting hurtfully in her hair. The resulting yank on her scalp was nothing compared to the shaft of pain that shot down her neck as he brutally jerked her head back so that he could see her face, which, when it was not contorted with fear as it was just at that moment, was considered just a slightly crooked nose shy of beautiful. His gun - a big silver pistol - jammed hard against her temple. The impact of metal on fragile bone made her wince. The mouth of the gun was hard and cold, like death itself.

His eyes - hazel, close-set, with thick black lashes that told her he was almost certainly dark-haired beneath the mask - were harder and colder.

As she met them, terror skittered down her spine like icy little mice feet. Her breathing quickened. Her heart, already thudding, accelerated until the pounding of her own pulse drowned out background sounds like the hum of the refrigerator, the soft hiss of the air-conditioning - and the quick footsteps of this guy’s partner, who was searching the place, room by room.

“I told you: there isn’t one. It doesn’t exist, okay? Whatever you may have heard, it’s wrong.”

There was nothing else she could say, even though she knew already that he wasn’t going to believe her. He hadn’t believed her before, he wouldn’t believe her now. World without end.

His eyes darkened. His mouth, visible through a slit in the knit mask, thinned. Her stomach knotted with fear.

Would they kill her if they didn’t get what they wanted? The thought made her want to throw up.

Yes, was the despairing conclusion she reached as she considered the carefully calculated ferocity of the attack so far. There was a coldness to it, a purposefulness, that told its own tale. She was as sure as it was possible to be that they - this man and his partner, both tall, muscular guys dressed with eery similarity in black t-shirts and sweat pants - had no intention whatsoever of letting her live.

Or Lisa either.

Lisa Abbott, her dear friend and former sorority sister, had, in the unluckiest of coincidences, selected this weekend to visit Washington, D.C. for the first time in the seven years since Katharine had moved there right out of college, armed with her spanking new degree in political science and a head full of change-the-world ideals. Katharine had taken Muffy to a friend’s for the weekend - Lisa was allergic to cats - then picked Lisa up at Dulles just after five. They had been excited to be together again after so long, gabbing away a mile a minute as they filled each other in on what was going on in their lives. They had stopped for drinks at Le Bar in Georgetown, had dinner around the corner at Angelo’s, then gone clubbing. By the time they arrived back here, at her elegant two-story townhouse in the historic Old Town section of the DC bedroom community of Alexandria, Virginia, it was after midnight and they both had been more than a little sloshed. They had toasted their reunion with one more glass of wine, then gone to bed, not so much totally exhausted as totally wasted.

That was then.

Now Katharine at least was stone cold sober, and Lisa lay about three feet away, face down on the embarrassingly dirty floor with her wrists and ankles bound with tape just as Katharine’s were. More duct tape covered Lisa’s mouth. The airy, wrought iron base of the granite-topped kitchen island separated them, but they could still see each other because of the structure’s open design. Lisa’s shoulder-length auburn hair spilled over her face so that all Katharine had been able to see of her expression since she’d been flung there was the terrified glint of her brown eyes. Lisa’s silky yellow ankle-length nightgown was hiked to her knees, revealing the delicate trio of intertwined butterflies tattooed just above her left ankle. The ruffled hem fanned out around her tanned legs like the petals of some exotic flower. But at least the garment provided more coverage than Katharine’s own night attire of tiny pink satin boxers and a matching knit tank. Lisa was an inch taller at five-foot-eight. Katharine was the more slender of the two, but Lisa was just as sexy with her well-toned, athletic physique. As Kappa Delts, the two of them had cut quite a swathe through the Ohio State University frat boys once upon a time.

Even as Katharine stared fearfully into the cold hazel eyes boring into her own, she was conscious of the sobbing rasp of Lisa’s terrified breathing.

They had everything to live for. Everything.

“Last chance: where is the damned safe?”

Click here to read another excerpt.

Now in Stores: GUILTY!

One cold November night when Kat White was fifteen years old, she and some friends held up a convenience store. In the heat of the moment, one of the others shot and killed an off-duty cop moonlighting as a security guard. Kat and her pals fled the scene in a panic, and no one was caught.

Sixteen years later, Kat -- now Kate -- has built a new life for herself. Now a single mom with an eight-year-old son, she works as a prosecutor in the Philadelphia DA's office. But her dark past rears its head when she walks into court one day and discovers that she is to prosecute Mario Castellanos, one of her friends from that terrible night.

Kate is in a bind: even though Mario was the one who probably did commit the crime, he's counting on Kate to make sure he's not convicted. If she convinces the judge of his guilt, he'll claim that she was the one who killed the off-duty cop. Before real despair sets in, Mario is found dead-in her apartment, and with her pistol. When homicide detective Tom Braga shows up to investigate the murder, Kate is far from relieved; the two have clashed since she started working for the prosecutor's office. But when another man who knows the secret of Kate's past gets involved in the investigation, she learns that her life-and her son's-are in danger. Frantic, she realizes that she has nowhere to turn. Except, maybe, to Tom...

- Click here to read an excerpt.
- Click here to buy GUILTY.


Click here to read more about GUILTY.

Newsletter Contest -- Win A Signed Copy of MORNING SONG!

As a subscriber to Karen Robards' newsletter you already are entered in a random drawing to win a signed copy of the newly reissued MORNING SONG. Winners will be contacted via email to get their mailing information in early July. 

Please note that subscribers who sign up for Karen Robards' newsletter by June 30, 2008 are eligible. May we suggest that you forward this newsletter to a friend who is a Karen Robards fan?

Click here to visit Karen Robards' newsletter sign up page.





Karen Robards Newsletter

April 2008

Greetings From Karen
Now in Stores: GUILTY!

Hot off the Press: GUILTY Mini-Excerpt!

OBSESSION: Paperback Coming May 27th!
Newsletter Contest -- Win A Signed Copy of MORNING SONG!

KarenRobards.com
About the Books
Guestbook
Greetings From Karen
April 1, 2008

Dear reader:

First, I wanted to let you know that GUILTY, my new hardcover romantic thriller about a feisty female attorney whose past comes back to bite her, will be on the shelves today. Publishers Weekly called it “scintillating...a page-turner” and Booklist said it was “a pleasure”. I’m including an excerpt, and you can visit my website for more. Also on my website is my first-ever “trailer”, a short video clip put together especially for GUILTY. Check out the trailer, read the excerpt, RUN OUT AND BUY THE BOOK (I was trying for subtle, but I gave up) and let me know what you think. I’d love to hear from you. There’s also a new contest so you can win free signed books.

On a personal note, we were hit by a tornado at the end of January and we’re still cleaning up. My two younger sons -- ages seventeen and twelve -- and I were at home, it was about eight p.m., and I was just settling in to watch American Idol. (I think David Archuleta has it in the bag, but it’s early weeks yet and I could be wrong.) It was raining and there were thunderstorms in the area, but the weather wasn’t that bad and there were no tornado warnings. My German Shepherd -- a 100-pound sweetie named Baron -- provided the first hint of impending disaster: he jumped into my lap. Since he is definitely not a lap dog, this was unusual. I was still trying to figure out what was up -- and not incidentally get him off me -- when I heard this weird sound, like a couple hundred chain saws revving right outside our family room. And the house started to shake.

Then it occurred to me that the chain saws actually sounded more like a freight train, and according to what I’d read freight train sound was bad, bad, bad. Couple that with the fact that my house was really shaking by this time and I had one of my patented Eureka! moments: tornado!

I ran from the room shrieking for my sons, who were upstairs playing video games and, I’m generally convinced, wouldn’t notice if the house was burning down around them. The rest of the animals -- a mutt, a beagle, and three cats -- swarmed down the front stairs toward me like they were abandoning a sinking ship. The boys --startled out of their headphones by their mom’s window-shattering screams -- burst from their rooms and bounded after the animals. The lights went out while they were still on the stairs.

We made it to the basement, animals and all, and huddled together in the pitch dark as the house shuddered and the freight train seemed to roar right above us. Then -- nothing. It was suddenly, eerily quiet. Over.

In the end, we lost twenty trees, a lot of fencing, suffered some damage to the house and even more to the barn. Some of our neighbors were hit even harder. A couple of houses were flat-out destroyed. But no one was injured, so we’re all thankful.

And now spring is here, the roof is fixed, the surviving trees are in bud, and GUILTY is hitting the bookstores.

What’s not to enjoy?

Warmest wishes,

Karen Robards

Now in Stores: GUILTY!

One cold November night when Kat White was fifteen years old, she and some friends held up a convenience store. In the heat of the moment, one of the others shot and killed an off-duty cop moonlighting as a security guard. Kat and her pals fled the scene in a panic, and no one was caught.

Sixteen years later, Kat -- now Kate -- has built a new life for herself. Now a single mom with an eight-year-old son, she works as a prosecutor in the Philadelphia DA's office. But her dark past rears its head when she walks into court one day and discovers that she is to prosecute Mario Castellanos, one of her friends from that terrible night.

Kate is in a bind: even though Mario was the one who probably did commit the crime, he's counting on Kate to make sure he's not convicted. If she convinces the judge of his guilt, he'll claim that she was the one who killed the off-duty cop. Before real despair sets in, Mario is found dead-in her apartment, and with her pistol. When homicide detective Tom Braga shows up to investigate the murder, Kate is far from relieved; the two have clashed since she started working for the prosecutor's office. But when another man who knows the secret of Kate's past gets involved in the investigation, she learns that her life-and her son's-are in danger. Frantic, she realizes that she has nowhere to turn. Except, maybe, to Tom...

- Click here to buy GUILTY.


Click here to read more about GUILTY.

Hot off the Press: GUILTY Mini-Excerpt!

Chapter one

"Where the sweet hell do you think you're going?"

Just after midnight on a steamy Friday in Baltimore, fifteen-year-old Katrina Kominski was halfway down the fire escape of the rundown brick apartment building where she had lived for the past seven months when the bellow from above froze her in her tracks.

Busted, she thought, because what she was doing was sneaking out after being grounded for the weekend.

Clutching the peeling black metal rail, casting a scared glance up, she discovered her foster mother leaning out the fourth floor window above her, fat cheeks jiggling, pink curlers bobbing, tent-sized pink housecoat zipped up to her cow-like neck. Behind her she could see two of the other girls -- Mrs. Coleman only took in girls; right now she had five in the three bedroom apartment -- crowding around. Twelve-year-old LaTonya looked scared. Sixteen-year-old Natalie looked smug.

Jealous witch probably had told.

"Out," she yelled back. The response was pure bravado, because down below her friends were watching. Inside, where no one could see, her stomach knotted in fear. Her heart pounded.

Should she go back, or...?

"Come on, Kat!" Jason Winter -- the to-die-for-cute boy she was crazy about -- yelled up to her. She looked down in terrible indecision. He was at the wheel of his beat up blue Camaro, which was idling in the alley below. It was crammed with kids; her best friend, Leah Oscar, had her head stuck out the rear window on the driver's side, yelling "Come on" to her along with Jason, while making urgent get-down-here-yesterday motions. A kid with black curly hair -- Mario Castellanos, one of Jason's good friends -- had his head out the front passenger window, his hands cupped around his mouth as he yelled insults at Mrs. Coleman, who was now raining abuse down on Kat's head.

"Look out!" Leah shrieked, pointing at something above Kat. Jason yelled something, too, and a couple of the other kids stuck their heads out the car windows as they screamed warnings, but Kat was already looking up again and what she saw sent her heart leaping into her throat.

Marty Jones, Mrs. Coleman's live-in boyfriend, had taken Mrs. Coleman's place and was halfway out the window. Last time she'd seen him -- about half an hour ago, when she had supposedly gone to bed in the small room she shared with Natalie and LaTonya -- he'd been zonked out on the couch. Now here he came after her, barefoot, wearing his gray work pants and a wife-beater, which on his huge, hulking, hairy body looked disgusting. Like Mrs. Coleman, he was maybe in his mid-forties. Unlike Mrs. Coleman, he didn't even pretend to like the girls she fostered for a living.

Except in a creepy way. Like, he'd told Kat to call him Marty instead of Mr. Jones. And he was always trying to get her to sit on the couch next to him while he watched TV. And a couple of days ago he'd popped the lock on the bathroom door -- he'd sworn it had been unlocked, but she knew better -- and "accidentally" walked in on her when she was in the shower. And.... well, there were lots of ands.

Kat hated him. He'd been eyeing her since she had arrived from the group home where she had been sent after the last foster care placement hadn't worked out. Being a skinny, cute, blue-eyed blond was not a good thing when the world you lived in was full of predatory men like Marty Jones. Over the last couple of years, Kat had learned to recognize them at a glance, and to keep as far away from them as possible.

Only it was getting harder and harder to keep away from Marty.

"You better get your ass back up here right now!" Almost through the window now, Marty saw her looking up at him and shook his head threateningly at her. He held a baseball bat in one hand. As their eyes met through the open metalwork of the staircase, Kat's stomach plummeted toward her red Dr. Scholl's sandals. Time to face the truth: Marty scared the be-jesus out of her. "Right now! You hear me, girl?"

Oh, yeah. She did. And even as the weight of him emerging onto the top of the fire escape made the whole thing shiver warningly, she ran, hanging onto the rail, clattering down the remaining steps to the encouraging screams of her friends, heart pounding, sweating bullets all the way.

If he caught her....

Click here to read the extended excerpt.

OBSESSION: Paperback Coming May 27th!
Katharine Lawrence has no idea what hit her. The attack came out of nowhere. Only hours earlier she had been enjoying a girls-only weekend with an old college friend. Now she finds herself lying bound and gagged on her kitchen floor, staring with terrified eyes at her friend Lisa while two masked gunmen search her house for -- what? She doesn't know. She only knows that, unless they can escape, whatever it is could end up getting both her and Lisa killed.

But Katharine's nightmare is only just beginning. When she awakens in a Washington hospital, her nose crushed, her body battered, her brain tells her things aren't right -- and it's not the attack that's disorienting her. She doesn't recognize herself when she looks in the mirror: her slim body, her manicured hands, her blond bob. And the smiling, handsome doctor at her bedside -- Dr. Dan Howard -- is familiar, but in a totally unfamiliar way. Perhaps the trauma of the attempt on her life has given her some kind of weird amnesia. She's twenty-nine, the special assistant to the head of the CIA, and she's lucky to be alive. She also knows she can trust no one.

Acting on instinct, Katharine runs for her life, with Dan, her new-found protector, at her side. By turns grateful and unnerved by his presence, and unable to shake a feeling of profound dread, she allows Dan to spirit her to a secluded safe house. Instead of finding a haven, they stumble into a tangled web of government conspiracy, leaving Katharine confused, frightened, and desperate to uncover the truth. As the pair is drawn further into this shadowy world where almost nothing is as it seems, as fear gives way to a firestorm of attraction, the cat-and-mouse game grows more deadly, and soon both of their lives are at stake.

- Click here to read an excerpt.
- Click here to buy OBSESSION.

Click here to read more about OBSESSION.

Newsletter Contest -- Win A Signed Copy of MORNING SONG!

As a subscriber to Karen Robards' newsletter you already are entered in a random drawing to win a signed copy of the newly reissued MORNING SONG. Winners will be contacted via email to get their mailing information in early July.

Please note that subscribers who sign up for Karen Robards' newsletter by June 30, 2008 are eligible. May we suggest that you forward this newsletter to a friend who is a Karen Robards fan?

Click here to visit Karen Robards' newsletter sign up page.





Karen Robards Newsletter

April 2007

Greetings From Karen
Now in Stores: OBSESSION!

VANISHED --- Available in Paperback June 5th

Enter the Recurring Character Contest on Karen Robards.com!
Newsletter Contest --- Win A Signed Copy of TIGER'S EYE!

KarenRobards.com
About the Books
Guestbook
Greetings From Karen
Dear Readers,

OBSESSION will be out on April 10th, so I hope you'll hurry out to your local bookstore and pick up a copy. It's one of my very favorites --- "twisty and terrifying... a top-notch romantic thriller", to quote RT Bookreviews --- and if you like my books I think you'll love it.

Katharine Lawrence, 29-year-old special assistant to the head of the CIA, is attacked in her home by thugs, and when she regains consciousness in the hospital she realizes that her life has been turned upside down. Her memory is spotty so she can't pinpoint exactly why, but she has an overwhelming feeling that she is in terrible danger. To make matters worse, when she catches a glimpse of herself in a mirror, she is horrified to discover that she doesn't recognize herself at all. The woman she sees in her mind's eye looks totally different from the sexy blond staring back at her. Lucky for her, her good neighbor Dan is right there in the hospital. HE recognizes her, and he helps her get away ---- from what? I'm not telling. See, the fun is in the finding out.

On a personal note, it's spring break this month for my two younger children, and we're going on a Caribbean cruise. (I'm so excited!) It'll be a family party, with my husband, me, and two of our sons, my sister and her two daughters, my best friend since childhood and her son, and her brother and his daughter. The children range from five to seventeen, so it should be a lively group. If anyone goes overboard ---- the five-year-old is an incorrigible climber, so the thought of her plus balcony railings is giving all of us nightmares --- I'll let you know in the next letter. If not, I'll be starting on my next romantic suspense as soon as I get home.
In the meantime, I hope you enjoy OBSESSION.

Have a wonderful April!


Warm regards,

Karen

Now in Stores: OBSESSION!

Katharine Lawrence has no idea what hit her. The attack came out of nowhere.  Only hours earlier she had been enjoying a girls-only weekend with an old college friend. Now she finds herself lying bound and gagged on her kitchen floor, staring with terrified eyes at her friend Lisa while two masked gunmen search her house for --- what?  She doesn't know. She only knows that, unless they can escape, whatever it is could end up getting both her and Lisa killed.

But Katharine's nightmare is only just beginning. When she awakens in a Washington hospital, her nose crushed, her body battered, her brain tells her things aren't right --- and it's not the attack that's disorienting her. She doesn't recognize herself when she looks in the mirror: her slim body, her manicured hands, her blond bob. And the smiling, handsome doctor at her bedside --- Dr. Dan Howard --- is familiar, but in a totally unfamiliar way. Perhaps the trauma of the attempt on her life has given her some kind of weird amnesia. She's twenty-nine, the special assistant to the head of the CIA, and she's lucky to be alive. She also knows she can trust no one.

Acting on instinct, Katharine runs for her life, with Dan, her new-found protector, at her side. By turns grateful and unnerved by his presence, and unable to shake a feeling of profound dread, she allows Dan to spirit her to a secluded safe house. Instead of finding a haven, they stumble into a tangled web of government conspiracy, leaving Katharine confused, frightened, and desperate to uncover the truth. As the pair is drawn further into this shadowy world where almost nothing is as it seems, as fear gives way to a firestorm of attraction, the cat-and-mouse game grows more deadly, and soon both of their lives are at stake.

Click here to pre-order OBSESSION from Amazon.

VANISHED --- Available in Paperback June 5th

Seven years ago, five-year-old Lexie vanished during an outing at a local park in Beaufort, South Carolina. Despite a furious search, little Lexie was never found, and Sarah was left to pick up the pieces of her shattered life and go on as best she could.

Then, on one hot July night, she returns home from work to hear the phone ringing. When she picks it up, a child's terrified voice whispers, "Mommy, help, come and get me . . ." The call is cut off, but not before Sarah's heart goes into overdrive: the voice belongs to Lexie....five year old Lexie. Though seven years have passed, she sounds exactly the same.

Frantic, Sarah turns to the police, the FBI, family, and friends, none of whom can help. Only her closest friend, former FBI agent Jake Hogan, takes her seriously. Jake is now a P.I., and though he is skeptical, the attraction he feels for Sarah pushes him to help her. Jake is convinced someone is deliberately tormenting the grief-stricken mother, and the continued tension of sketchy and unpredictable clues forces them to rely only on each other. Together they're caught in a nightmare search for Lexie, who might just still be alive -- if only Jake and Sarah can hang on

-Click here to read an excerpt from VANISHED.

Click here to pre-order the paperback edition of VANISHED on Amazon.



Enter the Recurring Character Contest on Karen Robards.com!
There is a character in VANISHED who also appeared in a previous book of Karen's. Name the character and the book and win a signed copy of VANISHED and the other book. Winners will also be entered into a drawing for a fabulous goody basket! Send entries to Karen@KarenRobards.com by June 30, 2007.

Newsletter Contest --- Win A Signed Copy of TIGER'S EYE!

As a subscriber to Karen Robards' newsletter you already are entered in a random drawing to win a signed copy of the newly reissued TIGER'S EYE. Winners will be contacted via email to get their mailing information in early July. 

Please note that subscribers who sign up for Karen Robards' newsletter by June 30, 2007 are eligible. May we suggest that you forward this newsletter to a friend who is a Karen Robards fan?


 

Click here to visit Karen Robards' newsletter sign up page.





Karen Robards Newsletter

January 2007

Greetings From Karen
Coming April 25th: OBSESSION
VANISHED is Now in Stores!
SUPERSTITION Is Out in Paperback

Don't Miss Three Karen Robards Classics, Now Just $4.99 from Avon!!

New Contest on Karen Robards.com!!!
Newsletter Contest --- Win A Signed Copy of TIGER'S EYE!

KarenRobards.com
About the Books
Guestbook
Greetings From Karen

Dear Friends,

January is shaping up to be a great month --- for me, anyway. I finished the last bit of work on OBSESSION, my latest thriller which will be out in hardback at the end of April. It was a complicated book, and finally wrapping up all the little twisty ends is cause for a major celebration. (I stepped out of my office during daylight hours for the first time in weeks and went to lunch with my husband --- yay!) Three of my classic historical romances will be reissued by Avon as part of their Great Book - Great Price promotion. (They're only $4.99 each.) If you haven't read TIGER'S EYE
, DESIRE IN THE SUN or MORNING SONG, run right out and buy a copy. They are great reads, I promise you. My husband and I are also celebrating our 27th wedding anniversary and --- am I on a roll or what? --- the children are back in school after a very fun, very activity-filled, very exhausting Christmas break.

From February 2-4, I'll be in Salt Lake City, Utah for the Mystery of Suspense Conference. After that, I'll be home working until April. Many of you will be glad to know that I hope to finish up SHAMELESS, the third book in the Banning Sisters Trilogy, this spring. I know it's been a long time coming, but I think you'll find it's worth the wait. I'm loving every minute of Beth's story. I'm also going to be writing my next thriller, which will be out in April, 2008 and is still so new it doesn't even have a title.

Well, that's it from me for now. Have a great winter --- stay warm, gather up a stack of wonderful books, and read, read, read.

With warmest regards,

Karen 

Coming April 25th: OBSESSION

Katharine Lawrence has no idea what hit her. The attack came out of nowhere.  Only hours earlier she had been enjoying a girls-only weekend with an old college friend. Now she finds herself lying bound and gagged on her kitchen floor, staring with terrified eyes at her friend Lisa while two masked gunmen search her house for --- what?  She doesn't know. She only knows that, unless they can escape, whatever it is could end up getting both her and Lisa killed.

But Katharine's nightmare is only just beginning. When she awakens in a Washington hospital, her nose crushed, her body battered, her brain tells her things aren't right --- and it's not the attack that's disorienting her. She doesn't recognize herself when she looks in the mirror: her slim body, her manicured hands, her blond bob. And the smiling, handsome doctor at her bedside --- Dr. Dan Howard --- is familiar, but in a totally unfamiliar way. Perhaps the trauma of the attempt on her life has given her some kind of weird amnesia. She's twenty-nine, the special assistant to the head of the CIA, and she's lucky to be alive. She also knows she can trust no one.

Acting on instinct, Katharine runs for her life, with Dan, her new-found protector, at her side. By turns grateful and unnerved by his presence, and unable to shake a feeling of profound dread, she allows Dan to spirit her to a secluded safe house. Instead of finding a haven, they stumble into a tangled web of government conspiracy, leaving Katharine confused, frightened, and desperate to uncover the truth. As the pair is drawn further into this shadowy world where almost nothing is as it seems, as fear gives way to a firestorm of attraction, the cat-and-mouse game grows more deadly, and soon both of their lives are at stake.

Click here to pre-order OBSESSION from Amazon.

VANISHED is Now in Stores!

Seven years ago, five-year-old Lexie vanished during an outing at a local park in Beaufort, South Carolina. Despite a furious search, little Lexie was never found, and Sarah was left to pick up the pieces of her shattered life and go on as best she could.

Then, on one hot July night, she returns home from work to hear the phone ringing. When she picks it up, a child's terrified voice whispers, "Mommy, help, come and get me . . ." The call is cut off, but not before Sarah's heart goes into overdrive: the voice belongs to Lexie....five year old Lexie. Though seven years have passed, she sounds exactly the same.

Frantic, Sarah turns to the police, the FBI, family, and friends, none of whom can help. Only her closest friend, former FBI agent Jake Hogan, takes her seriously. Jake is now a P.I., and though he is skeptical, the attraction he feels for Sarah pushes him to help her. Jake is convinced someone is deliberately tormenting the grief-stricken mother, and the continued tension of sketchy and unpredictable clues forces them to rely only on each other. Together they're caught in a nightmare search for Lexie, who might just still be alive -- if only Jake and Sarah can hang on.

-Click here to read an excerpt from VANISHED.

Click here to purchase VANISHED on Amazon.



SUPERSTITION Is Out in Paperback

Sparks fly between a police chief and a reporter who are thrown together when a brutal killer comes out of hiding after fifteen years.

Pawleys Island, South Carolina. Sunny, idyllic, and picture perfect, until a tabloid news program airs a splashy segment about the community's only unsolved murder-the grisly stabbing of teenager Tara Mitchell and the subsequent disappearance of her two best friends, both thought to be long dead. In the years since the murders, several families have moved into the mansion where the crime occurred, each claiming that the dead girls still haunt the house. Beautiful redheaded reporter Nicole Sullivan, sensing the story that could be her big break, arranges for her mother, a renowned psychic, to contact the three victims via a live séance on the show Twenty-four Hours Investigates.

But something goes terribly wrong during the segment, and a young woman is murdered in the exact same manner as Tara Mitchell was fifteen years earlier. Pressured by her producers to get the inside story, Nicole is ordered to continue to investigate. As an attraction grows between Nicole and police chief Joe Franconi, another identical murder occurs, along with a menacing note warning that the original killer is back to claim three more lives. The body count rises, and so does the danger to Nicole, who is attacked, barely escaping with her life. She and Joe are forced to join forces as it becomes clear that the killer has set his sights on Nicole as his next victim.

"Karen Robards is one of the best writers of romantic suspense available today. Fans...will love SUPERSTITION, a fascinating romantic police procedural with supernatural elements that add an extra dimension to the story line. Ms. Robards always delivers a thrilling reading experience."
-The Best Reviews

-Click here to read an excerpt from SUPERSTITION.

Click here to purchase SUPERSTITION on Amazon.



Don't Miss Three Karen Robards Classics, Now Just $4.99 from Avon!!

I'm thrilled that I get to share with readers three of my favorite older titles through Avon's Great Book, Great Price promotion. Unfortunately, because these titles were published in a less tech-savvy time, there is very little information about them on my website, so I'm providing a brief description of each book here.

DESIRE IN THE SUN
Set in the antebellum South, Desire in the Sun is the story of Joss San Pietro, who was raised as a wealthy gentleman but found himself taken captive and cruelly enslaved. His fate rests in the hands of Lilah Remy, a beautiful, pampered daughter of privilege. Destiny casts them together on tempestuous seas, and shipwrecked and alone they must face desperate trials and dangerous truths - and a bold, forbidden love that can only blossom in paradise.

TIGER'S EYE
TIGER'S EYE is set in Regency London. Lady Isabella St. Just is nearly murdered on her way to London, and is shocked to wake up in a brothel and learn that her rescuer is none other than the King of London's notorious underworld as well as the most gorgeous man she has ever laid eyes on, Alec Tyron. She  is beholden to this outlaw who is respected and feared throughout the city and shocked by her own intense attraction for this dark ruffian. Fate throws these strangers from opposite lives ---- the beautiful aristocrat and the branzen criminal --- together. Once the flame is lit, no power on earth can quench the fire of their passion, or destroy a love that Society cannot allow.

MORNING SONG
Morning Song is the story of an innocent young girl, Jessie Lindsay, who will do anything to thwart the charming, enigmatic fortune hunter who has come to wed her widowed stepmother. But there is far more to Stuart Edwards that Jessie first imagines. And in the heat of the blistering Southern summer, the handsome riverboat gambler will awaken Jessie to feelings she has never known as reckless, undeniable desire propels them both toward scandal, possible ruin --- and an impossible love.
New Contest on Karen Robards.com!!!
There is a character in VANISHED who also appeared in a previous book of Karen's. Name the character and the book and win a signed copy of VANISHED and the other book. Winners will also be entered into a drawing for a fabulous goody basket! Send entries to Karen@KarenRobards.com by June 30, 2007.

Newsletter Contest --- Win A Signed Copy of TIGER'S EYE!

As a subscriber to Karen Robards' newsletter you already are entered in a random drawing to win a signed copy of the newly reissued TIGER'S EYE. Winners will be contacted via email to get their mailing information in early April. 

Please note that subscribers who sign up for Karen Robards' newsletter by March 31, 2007 are eligible. May we suggest that you forward this newsletter to a friend who is a Karen Robards fan?


 

Click here to visit Karen Robards' newsletter sign up page.





Karen Robards Newsletter

April 25, 2006

Greetings From Karen
VANISHED is Now in Stores!

Newsletter Reader Exclusive: Special VANISHED Excerpt 

And Don't Forget --- New York Times Bestseller SUPERSTITION Comes out in Paperback May 30th!
Newsletter Contest --- Win A Signed Copy of SUPERSTITION!

KarenRobards.com
About the Books
Guestbook
Greetings From Karen

Dear Reader:

This is such an exciting time for me! VANISHED hits the shelves today, and it's my twenty-fifth anniversary as a published author. Back in 1981, I was a twenty-four-year-old with a dream. More than I had ever wanted anything in my life, I wanted to see a story that I had written become a book, a real book that would be sold in a bookstore for people to buy and read. Then it happened: my first book, a pirate-themed historical romance called ISLAND FLAME, was published. (For more on that story, please see my web-site at www.karenrobards.com.) Since then, I've married, had three children, and written thirty-three books and one novella, but the thrill of seeing that first book on the bookstore shelf for the first time has never faded. It still ranks as one of the most magical moments of my life.
 
The publication of my new book, VANISHED, is a great way to celebrate. It's a romantic thriller, fast-paced and exciting, sometimes funny and sometimes sad and always (I hope) exciting, and I loved writing it. As a mother, I took my worst nightmare -- the disappearance of a beloved child -- and applied the classic writer's question to it: "What if?"
 
What if your child vanished, and you spent seven long and hideous years desperately searching for her -- and then one night, out of the blue, she called, begging you to come and get her? Only she sounded exactly the same -- still five years old, the age she was when she disappeared -- and you knew it wasn't possible, knew it couldn't be her, even though your heart told you differently?
 
Sarah Mason, the mother in question and the heroine of VANISHED, finds herself in just that situation. She's a lawyer, a prosecutor, and she has gone on with her life since her little daughter Lexie disappeared, although all the color and joy and pleasure has been sucked from her existence. She relies for comfort and support on her closest friend in the world, hunky PI Jake Hogan, whom she hired years ago to help search for her daughter. What she doesn't know is that Jake is getting tired of being "best friends."  He wants to take their relationship to a whole new -- romantic -- level. But he holds off, because he knows she has lost all interest in sex, and men.
 
Then someone tries to kill Sarah....
 
Okay, so I enjoy leaving people hanging. If you read my books, you know that. If you haven't tried them yet, Vanished is a great one to start with. You can find an excerpt on my web-site. Another excerpt, a special one available only with this e-mail, is included here. There's lots of other fun stuff on my site, as well as a great new contest and a list of up-coming appearances. I hope you'll stop by and visit. Also, I'll be chatting at Writerspace.com at 9 p.m. Sunday, April 30th, so if you get a chance please drop by.

If you have a friend that you think would enjoy reading VANISHED, please forward this newsletter on! 
 
Warm regards,
 
Karen

VANISHED is Now in Stores!

Seven years ago, five-year-old Lexie vanished during an outing at a local park in Beaufort, South Carolina. Despite a furious search, little Lexie was never found, and Sarah was left to pick up the pieces of her shattered life and go on as best she could.

Then, on one hot July night, she returns home from work to hear the phone ringing. When she picks it up, a child's terrified voice whispers, "Mommy, help, come and get me . . ." The call is cut off, but not before Sarah's heart goes into overdrive: the voice belongs to Lexie....five year old Lexie. Though seven years have passed, she sounds exactly the same.

Frantic, Sarah turns to the police, the FBI, family, and friends, none of whom can help. Only her closest friend, former FBI agent Jake Hogan, takes her seriously. Jake is now a P.I., and though he is skeptical, the attraction he feels for Sarah pushes him to help her. Jake is convinced someone is deliberately tormenting the grief-stricken mother, and the continued tension of sketchy and unpredictable clues forces them to rely only on each other. Together they're caught in a nightmare search for Lexie, who might just still be alive -- if only Jake and Sarah can hang on.

-Click here to read an excerpt from VANISHED.

Click here to purchase VANISHED on Amazon.



Newsletter Reader Exclusive: Special VANISHED Excerpt 

 "Are you criticizing my decorating?" Sarah demanded, outraged.

 Jake snorted. "Decorating? Don't give me that. You didn't decorate. You went out and you deliberately bought the bare minimum of stuff you needed to furnish this place. You deliberately bought cheap, and you deliberately bought ugly. Everything's brown, tan -" he paused, pulled the towel hanging around his neck off and shook it at her "- hell, even the damned towels are tan."

 "So I like earth tones," Sarah said through her teeth. "Sue me."

 "The hell you do." Jake's eyes swept over her. "Look at your clothes. You dress like a woman twice your age. You never wear anything colorful or pretty, or, God forbid, sexy. Everything you wear is black or gray or...."

 "They're called neutrals," Sarah interrupted, seething.

"They're business appropriate. What, are you an expert on women's clothing now?"

 "No," Jake said. "But when I first met you, you were wearing a bright red T-shirt and a short denim skirt that showed off your legs. I can still remember because you looked good in them. Your apartment - remember what your apartment looked like? The one you and Lexie lived in? I do."

 "Stop," Sarah said. "Just stop right now."

 "It was yellow. The walls. A soft, pale yellow that made you feel welcome as soon as you walked in the door. The couch was old, but you'd thrown a red quilt over it and it was bright and comfortable. There were curtains. Rugs. Pictures on the walls. Books on the shelves. Photographs in frames. Flowers on the table. A damned plant in your kitchen window."

 "The flowers were plastic. The plant was dying." Sarah felt as if her heart were constricting. It was all she could do to breathe. The images he conjured up made her ache even as she tried to force them out of her head.

 "Maybe they were, but that's not the point. The point is that the place you lived in then was a home, not a damned mausoleum. The clothes you wore were pretty, sexy. Since then, it's like you're deliberately trying to deny yourself anything that could possibly bring you pleasure. You don't even eat, for God's sake."

 "So what if I don't?" Sarah cried, stung almost past bearing. "Why don't you damned well just mind your own business? What's it to you?"

 "This," Jake said in a goaded tone. Then he pushed her back against the wall, slid a hand along the side of her neck and covered her mouth with his.

And Don't Forget --- New York Times Bestseller SUPERSTITION Comes out in Paperback May 30th!

Sparks fly between a police chief and a reporter who are thrown together when a brutal killer comes out of hiding after fifteen years.

Pawleys Island, South Carolina. Sunny, idyllic, and picture perfect, until a tabloid news program airs a splashy segment about the community's only unsolved murder-the grisly stabbing of teenager Tara Mitchell and the subsequent disappearance of her two best friends, both thought to be long dead. In the years since the murders, several families have moved into the mansion where the crime occurred, each claiming that the dead girls still haunt the house. Beautiful redheaded reporter Nicole Sullivan, sensing the story that could be her big break, arranges for her mother, a renowned psychic, to contact the three victims via a live séance on the show Twenty-four Hours Investigates.

But something goes terribly wrong during the segment, and a young woman is murdered in the exact same manner as Tara Mitchell was fifteen years earlier. Pressured by her producers to get the inside story, Nicole is ordered to continue to investigate. As an attraction grows between Nicole and police chief Joe Franconi, another identical murder occurs, along with a menacing note warning that the original killer is back to claim three more lives. The body count rises, and so does the danger to Nicole, who is attacked, barely escaping with her life. She and Joe are forced to join forces as it becomes clear that the killer has set his sights on Nicole as his next victim.

"Karen Robards is one of the best writers of romantic suspense available today. Fans...will love SUPERSTITION, a fascinating romantic police procedural with supernatural elements that add an extra dimension to the story line. Ms. Robards always delivers a thrilling reading experience."
-The Best Reviews

-Click here to read an excerpt from SUPERSTITION.

Click here to purchase SUPERSTITION on Amazon.



Newsletter Contest --- Win A Signed Copy of SUPERSTITION!