Bøker av Katia Lief

Katia Lief’s Women Like Us is a sharply-rendered literary thriller that examines the complexities and responsibilities of female friendship—what brings women together, and what drives them apart.Joni Ackerman was tired of being invisible.It’s been one year since Joni Ackerman tipped the antifreeze into her husband’s cocktail. One year since he was found dead on the stairs. One year since she got away with murder. At first, Joni feared the consequences of her transgression, but she’s learned to embrace the power of recklessness in a way she would have hated to see in anyone else. It was that recklessness, after all, that took her to this rewarding new life.Joni now runs Sunny Day Productions alongside her daughter, Chris, and her best friend, Val. All is well in life and work until, one day, their balance is rocked when an unexpected, and unwelcome, visitor appears.When Joni’s brother, Marc, resurfaces after a twenty-year estrangement, Joni braces for the sibling she knew—a cruel, vindictive conman who deftly switched between personas. But this Marc on her doorstep is different. He’s older, softer. And he seems to have overcome the self-inflicted traumas of his past.But Val isn’t fooled. She knows exactly what sort of man Marc is, and she warns Joni to keep her guard up. When Mark inevitably betrays Joni’s trust, Joni is forced to look inward. As dark thoughts, and darker compulsions, take form, Joni can’t help but wonder: ‘Is psychopathy a family trait?’

Other people kill their husbands. Not her.“A darkly clever thriller about women’s thwarted ambitions, celebrity, the Time’s Up movement and revenge.”—People (Book of the Week)In Invisible Woman, a dangerous secret held for too long between estranged best friends rises to the surface, and a long marriage comes apart with devastating consequences.Joni Ackerman’s decision to raise children, 25 years ago, came with a steep cost. She was then a pioneering filmmaker, one of the few women to break into the all-male Hollywood club of feature film directors. But she and her husband Paul had always wanted a family, and his ascending career at a premier television network provided a safety net. Now they’ve recently transplanted to Brooklyn, so that Paul can launch a major East Coast production studio, when a scandal rocks the film industry and forces Joni to revisit a secret from long ago involving her friend Val.  Joni is adamant that the time has come to tell the story, but Val and Paul are reluctant, for different reasons. As the marriage frays and the friends spar about whether to speak up, Joni’s struggles with isolation in a new city, and old resentments about the sacrifices she made on her family’s behalf start to boil over. She takes solace, of sorts, in the novels of Patricia Highsmith—particularly the masterpiece Strangers on a Train, with its duplicitous characters and their murderous impulses—until the lines between reality and fantasy become blurred.Invisible Woman is at once a literary thriller about the lies we tell each other (and ourselves), and a powerful psychological examination of the complexities of friendship, marriage, and motherhood.

Former New York City police detectives-turned-Brooklyn private investigators Karin Schaeffer and her husband Mac survived when brutal terror invaded their lives more than once. Now the offer of thirty thousand dollars for one day's work in London, followed by a family vacation in an exotic locale, seems too good to be true. And then they discover that it is.Putting Mac's investigations into the alleged marital infidelities of billionaire Godfrey Millerhausenon hold, the family finds paradise in the sun-drenched Mediterranean island of Sardinia. Butthe holiday turns dark and terrible when the children vanish. Suddenly Karin and Mac must unravel a deadly web first spun when wronged wife Cathy Millerhausen walked into their world—as they discover firsthand the true evil of big money: how far it reaches, what it buys . . . whoit kills.

For two years the "Working Girl Killer" hunted in Manhattan, brutally slaughtering nine city prostitutes. And now the fiend has crossed the river.Former cop-turned-p.i. Karin Schaeffer receives the call meant for her detective husband Mac on a Sunday night: two females found on a Brooklyn street. The first is an eleven-year-old girl, the apparent victim of a hit-and-run. But it's the second body that truly chills the blood?a young corpse bearing the grisly, unmistakable signature of a serial slayer who has eluded the NYPD for years.But there's something frighteningly different about these latest atrocities?a kink that is leading Schaeffer's unofficial investigation down strange and twisting alleys where nothing is as it originally seems. And the haunted p.i., who once lost everything to a psychopath, is suddenly facing the darkness once again . . . when the horror strikes too close to home and those she loves are in danger of vanishing forever.

"Suspense at a high level." -Midwest Book ReviewWHERE DOES THE TRUTH END-AND THE ULTIMATE BETRAYAL BEGIN?When she discovers e-mail evidence of her husband's infidelity, Annie Milliken is shattered. Dismissing his pleas of innocence, she takes their baby daughter and goes to the one person she has always trusted: her twin sister, Julie. Annie and her sister soon become as close as they were growing up, spending their days together, dressing the same, sharing the baby. But when Annie applies for a job, everything comes undone. Her credit cards are stolen just a she's arrested for grand larceny. The police realize she is the victim of identity theft, but she has yet to understand the true scale of the crime. For when Annie turns to Julie for help, she finds that her twin sister has disappeared...along with her baby.Now with her daughter-and her own life-on the line, Annie is going to fight for what is hers.PRAISE FOR KATIA LIEF'S NOVELS"Mesmerizing." --Lisa Gardner"Nail-biting suspense." -Richard Montanari"Brilliant." -Suspense Magazine"Exhilarating." -The Mystery Gazette"Taut, clean storytelling." -Publishers Weekly"Readers will want to read more of this talented writer's work." -New York Journal of Books

"Jam-packed with heart stopping suspense." -Book FetishONE COLD NIGHT SHE DISAPPEARED...New York Police detective Dave Strauss is haunted by the one case he couldn't solve. A schoolgirl vanished off the streets of Brooklyn, with only a trail of blood and a series of untraceable phone calls from "the Groom" hinting at her fate. Now the cold dark night has engulfed another young girl-but this time she is part of Dave's family. He and his wife, Susan, know fourteen-year-old Lisa has not run away, and they know her disappearance is not just a tragic coincidence. And once the first phone call comes, they know she's not alone....PRAISE FOR KATIA LIEF'S NOVELS"Mesmerizing." --Lisa Gardner"Nail-biting suspense." -Richard Montanari"Brilliant." -Suspense Magazine"Exhilarating." -The Mystery Gazette"Taut, clean storytelling." -Publishers Weekly"Readers will want to read more of this talented writer's work." -New York Journal of Books

Aspiring cartoonist Catherine "Cat" Gold earns her living as a celebrity assistant in uptown Manhattan, while navigating the cramped downtown spaces of life, love, and alternative art. Her boss is Rochelle "Rocky" Love, a celebrated 1970s feminist and has-been '80s radio and television star who is convinced she can forge a '90s comeback with an autobiography. But the ghostwriter hired to glorify her life instead reveals a battleground of treachery and hypocrisy, littered with lies and sex that cross all the boundaries. When Cat herself experiences Rocky's duplicity and learns that the icon is a fraud, she is fueled by a sense of disappointment and conspires with the ghostwriter to reveal the unspeakable truth about their narcissistic boss.PRIASE FOR KATIA LIEF'S NOVELS"Wonderfully funny and terribly true."-Fay Weldon"Urban, hip, sad, funny, a tipsy walk on the wild side."-Malcolm Bosse"Subversively funny and fresh."-Publishers Weekly

"Laugh-aloud funny." -Publishers WeeklyDawn and Hank's breakup is so fresh that she can see the tan line where her engagement ring used to be. She is still in love with Hank, who dumped her for Christine-and they're living together now. But when Dawn realizes how much Hank misses her, and might even regret their breakup, the game is on.Dating in 1980s Manhattan is confusing enough. Then Mike Blitsky-a.k.a. Mike Mauvais of "Misled Mike's Marvelous Men," a transvestite escort service-bursts into Dawn's life when she becomes the editor of a tell-all memoir he's writing to pay for his legal defense. Unbeknownst to Dawn, Hank is Mike's lawyer, defending him against charges of running a male prostitution ring. Dawn's friend Katherine, a doctoral student in eighteenth century literature, is hired to do research for Mike's book. With everyone working at cross purposes, the result is a modern day comedy of errors that doesn't wind up until the wedding bouquet goes flying in the final scene."Wonderfully funny and terribly true."-Fay Weldon"Urban, hip, sad, funny, a tipsy walk on the wild side."-Malcolm Bosse

"Awesome and revealing."*Fifteen-year-old Kate Steiner is not sure why she is suddenly boarding at an East Coast school for troubled kids, though there is evidence that her lawyer parents are having marital problems. It is the mid-1970's, and at the progressive school where she has landed, Kate is initiated into a stratified society inhabited by kids who fell through the cracks."We were delinquents, addicts, mental cases, orphans and kids from broken homes."Kate must grapple with moral ambiguities when she discovers that Patrick, her first boyfriend, is also a slip-sliding drug addict. In the loosening of family ties, and faced with an inscrutable headmaster, uncommunicative parents and a doomed first love, Kate makes shadowy passage through her questioning adolescence...finding solace in a 'soul catcher' dangling inside a geodesic dome built by a quirky boy who surprises her with an unexpected friendship.PRAISE FOR KATIA LIEF'S NOVELS"Taut, clean storytelling." -Publishers Weekly"A realistic, believable boarding school, where adolescent angst and the trauma of growing up at a breakneck pace is presented...as the difficult transition it is." -Small Press Magazine*Elizabeth, reader (amazon.com)

"A gripping story that pulls you in and doesn't let go until the end." -Book Review CaféA GRISLY CRIMEOn a day that seems perfectly ordinary, Alice Halpern waits for her best friend at the playground where they always meet with their children in their comfortable Brooklyn neighborhood. But when Lauren doesn't come home, then fails to pick her son up from school, a normal day turns into a nightmare-and Alice begins to realize that nothing will ever be ordinary again.A GROWING FEARThe police desperately search for Lauren, who is nearly nine months pregnant. Alice, herself pregnant, realizes she's being followed and has the creeping fear that she and her unborn twins are in danger. As the investigation intensifies, Alice is shocked as her familiar world begins to unravel. And as new life grows within her, she must fight to save her family-and herself...PRAISE FOR KATIA LIEF'S NOVELS"Mesmerizing." --Lisa Gardner"Nail-biting suspense." -Richard Montanari"Brilliant." -Suspense Magazine"Exhilarating." -The Mystery Gazette"Taut, clean storytelling." -Publishers Weekly"Readers will want to read more of this talented writer's work." -New York Journal of Books

The rich play by their own rules Former New York City homicide detective Karin Schaeffer should be enjoying a family holiday in Sardinia. But she and her husband, Mac, arrive on the island to find their children and nanny missing.Is the kidnapping connected to Mac s last case: investigating the infidelities of billionaire Godfrey Millerhausen? And, if so, just how far will the he go to protect their secrets?A Karin Schaeffer Novel

He s watching her every move...Darcy was just trying to be friendly to the new boy in the office. But it s gone horribly wrong. At first it was just unwanted invitations but now Joe is sending her abusive emails, calling her late at night, unwilling to take no for an answer.And every step Darcy takes to distance herself from him is just adding fuel to Joe s obsession. And now he knows where she lives...

The police call him... the working girl killer. But no woman is safe...The 11th victim is found only a short distance from Karin Shaeffer s house. At the crime-scene she discovers a local prostitute stabbed to death, the knife left embedded between her breasts.It is the signature of the Working Girl Killer a serial killer who has terrorised New York City for the last three years. The police are clueless but when Karin s best friend becomes the lead investigator, she finds herself drawn into the investigation as a consulting detective.But next time the killer is going to strike all too close to home...

Karin Schaeffer's husband is missing presumed dead.The police are convinced that Mac took his own life after the brutal murder of his parents in what looks like a robbery gone bad...Karin is determined to do all she can to find her husband...alive or dead.Only she's about to discover how little she knows about the man she married.But someone else is watching the Schaeffer family. Watching, waiting and biding their time before they reveal the dark secrets of Mac's past - and exact a terrifying revenge.

Your time is up...Emily Parker is missing, kidnapped from a car park in broad daylight and the police are clueless as to her whereabouts.The only man her family can turn to for help is retired FBI profiler John Geary. But Geary suspects she's been taken by a serial killer who targets mothers. Every seven years he strikes, enacting a gruesome ritual. And Geary knows that there's much worse to come....Emily has five days left. Five days of waiting. Five days of hell. Five days before the killer returns for her son...

An ex-cop with a death wish. A serial killer with a gruesome agenda...Detective Karin Schaeffer was a happily married mother until she got too close to catching a serial killer.The press nickname him The Domino Killer because he systematically murders whole families, leaving a trail of bloody dominoes as the only clues to his next victim. Having brutally slain Karin's husband and child, he left her a chilling message scrawled in her daughter's blood: YOU ARE NEXT.But now the Domino Killer has escaped prison and the police believe he's on his way to find her. And Karin is waiting...