When Darkness Falls

Her body seems to hover above the forest floor. Arms and legs torn away from the trunk. A bloody stump mounted upright on a skewer.

Not just a corpse. A warning.

The most recent body was discovered in the woods just beyond a logging cabin. Dismembered. Put on display. Ghostly pale skin stark against the forest's green.

Before that, two campers were found a few miles off. Cut apart. Impaled. Left in public places where they'd surely be found.

The grisly crimes summon FBI profiler Violet Darger to a tiny island off the Alaskan coast -- 2,500 square miles of forested land populated by just 6,000 souls.

Here, in the primordial wilderness, she'll face off with a shadowy killer unlike anything she's seen. Raging. Brutal. Elusive.

He waits. Seethes. In the woods. In the dark. Always watching. He waits.

Darger digs into the history of torso killers to try to understand the psychology behind the crimes. Finds a legacy of savagery dating back over a hundred years.

Aggression beyond comprehension. A recurring phenomenon of human behavior that chills her.

Human anatomy used to mark out territory. Corpses made totems to warn off others. It happens over and over again.

Who could carry out such brutality? And why?

Understanding the interior world, the motivations, of this type of killer will be the key to solving the case.

The dark woods hold his secrets tightly. The terrain itself shielding him, giving him an edge over those in law enforcement seeking him.

When a storm moves in, Darger finds herself in peril deep in his territory. Vulnerable. Exposed. Walking right into his trap.

He waits.

The novels in the Violet Darger series can be read as stand-alones. Scroll up and grab When Darkness Falls now.

Praise for the Violet Darger series:

"Excellent suspense right to the last word. Had the most heart pounding ending of any book I've ever read." -- Anne Bembeck, Goodreads Review

"The Violet Darger books are honestly the best detective novels I've ever read." -- Devin

"The description had my stomach dropping and clenching as if I was in the car with them! Visceral experience! Just terrific." -- B.J. Hyman, Goodreads Review

"Un-put-downable! I cannot wait for this series to grow. If you love Sandford, Slaughter, Kava, Stelljes and Deaver, you’ll LOVE Vargus & McBain!" -- Melody M

"McBain and Vargus have proven yet again that this is their genre, and Loshak and Darger are their stars." -- Jennifer Tooker, Goodreads Review

"Vargus and McBain have, in Violet Darger, created a character that absolutely stands up with some of the greats -- Phillip Marlowe, Dave Robicheaux, Elvis Cole, Charlie Parker, August Dupin, Jack Reacher, Harry Bosch, etc." -- Lucinda E. Snyder

"Wow, just wow! If you like scare-you-half-to-death mystery books this is the one for you. It starts with a bang and just doesn't stop." -- Ada Lavin

"If you liked Silence of the Lambs, you'll love Dead End Girl... At the same time, there's so much attention to detail and organic sto