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.

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 

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

 "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.

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.