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Summary

​A serial killer stalks a photographer hiding from her past while her friends try to protect her.

Stats

Genre: Adult suspense

Series length: Five novels and one novella

Violence: Moderately high violence, including murder

Magic/Supernatural: None

Romance/Sex: No real romance, but several scenes pertaining to rape (or the attempt thereof), all expertly handled in non-explicit detail

Christian/spiritual element: Overt Christian elements

Recommendation: While this could be a trigger for some, this intense suspense is threaded with humor to keep it from becoming too dark and seems to provide realistic portrayal of someone who has been victimized but has not become a victim of her circumstances, making it a solid read for both avid readers of suspense and those seeking a book to help them understand someone who may have been so traumatized.  

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Opening Lines:

The ominous sound of something scraping across the cement behind me raised the hairs on the back of my neck. I slid my fingers under the thick braided strap of my camera bag, preparing to use it as a weapon, as I paused to look behind me.

​I'd stayed out too late photgraphing a young couple. The sun had dropped behind the horizon fifteen minutes ago, and it had been a long walk back form the park. 

Criss Cross (Holly, Book 1)
by C.C. Warrens

Safety is just an illusion...
​An illusion shattered by the whisper of footsteps in the darkness behind her.

Holly has drifted from one place to the next for as long as she can remember, never settling long enough to build a life. It's the only way she knows how to survive in a world that has no place for someone like her. But when mysterious footsteps follow her home, and she finds a cryptic note taped to her door, she realizes she's stayed too long.

The man she's hiding from has found her. But how? 

When people start dying and old, forgotten memories begin to surface, Holly finds herself wrapped up in a terrifying mystery with God, a pushy Southern detective, and a killer with one thing on his mind: her.

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Opening Lines:

The aroma of sweat and coconut shampoo filled the room, bringing to mind a tropical sweat lodge. I paced the outside of the rubber mat, casting wary looks at my opponent.

He was roughly ten inches taller than me--putting him at an even six feet--and he had a lean muscular build that made my runner's physique pale by comparison. His eyes, which reminded me of a clear blue sky, sparkled with amusement as he watched me. 

"You actually have to get close to hit me, Holly," he pointed out. 

Cross Fire (Holly, Book 2)
by C.C. Warrens

Stand and fight . . .
​Or flee and survive.

Collin Wells is no ordinary foster brother. He is evil wrapped in human skin — a living, breathing nightmare, and when he steps back into Holly's life, she's faced with a choice:

Trust the people who claim they can keep her safe, or trust the instincts that have kept her alive for the past fourteen years.  

As the threads of her life begin to unravel around her, leaving her terrified, displaced from her home, and caught in the middle of a drug battle, she can't help but wonder if she made the wrong choice.

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Opening Lines:

Ash drifted down around me like snowflakes from the night sky as I watched the women's shelter smolder. It had been my safe haven for nearly a year after I fled to New York--a place for my body and spirit to heal--and now it was gone. 

I knelt on the sidewalk in a state of numb disbelief as firemen scoured the rubble for bodies. I didn't want to watch them collect the tiny remains of children, but I couldn't pull my eyes away. 

Crossed Off (Holly, Book 3)
by C.C. Warrens

He’ll get what he came for...
no matter how many bodies he has to step over.

Collin Wells is relentless and ruthless, and he’ll stop at nothing to get what he wants: his foster sister, the girl who always manages to slip through his fingers.

Holly’s foster brother has haunted her footsteps for years—taunting her, toying with her—and until recently, she never dared to stop running and build a life for herself. Now, everyone she loves is in danger.

How can she protect the people she loves when her foster brother comes to collect?

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Opening Lines:

He slid down the wall to the floor and stared at his bloody hands, horrified by what he had done. There hadn't been any other way, and he knew that, but the terrified look in the man's eyes was an image he would never be able to purge from his mind. 

Injustice for All (Seeking Justice, Book 1)
by C.C. Warrens

​"I should have tried harder."

Those final words are scrawled across a note that’s been pinned to a man's remains.

Pulled to a crime scene in the middle of the night, Detective Marx struggles to unravel the mystery behind a message written by the victim. A suicide note . . . or an admission of guilt? Before he can discover the truth, what seems to be a random act of violence becomes something much darker and far more dangerous.

Another note. Another body.

With very little evidence and even less time, Detective Marx searches for the common thread between the victims before another innocent dies, but his efforts might put him directly in the killer’s path.

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Opening Lines:

Rain flowed down the truck's windshield in rivulets, causing the gray street ahead to ripple. Gus squinted, straining to see the edges of the road. 

If he'd known a storm was brewing, he might've waited 'til morning to run to the store. But his pregnant wife had a hankering for a chocolate icing, and they were short on sugar. 

Holly Jolly Christmas (Seeking Justice, Book 1.5)
by C.C. Warrens

Beneath the twinkling lights and neatly wrapped packages, lay bitter memories and carefully-kept secrets . . .

Three decades have passed since Marx last set foot in his family's Georgia home. The house has faded over the years, but the haunting memories contained within its walls remain crisp and unforgettable. If not for the girl asleep in the passenger's seat of his car, Marx would turn his car around and head back to his life in New York City. But it's time to face his demons.

​This novella is a Seeking Justice Christmas novella that falls between "Injustice for All" and "Imperfect Justice.

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Opening Lines:

The bloody footprints materialized on the sidewalk as the rising sun crept slowly over the city--small, feminine, and uncoordinated. 

Liam's blue eyes lingered on the gruesome trail that had led him to the front door of a rundown duplex, his mind drawing details from the photograph in his pocket to paint the scene.

Imperfect Justice (Seeking Justice, Book 2)
by C.C. Warrens

Ten months ago, he nearly killed her. By the grace of God, she survived. But the fight to regain her life is just beginning.

Holly Cross is counting down the hours to the moment her foster brother’s trial begins. Collin has haunted her footsteps—and her dreams—for fifteen years, and she wants nothing more than to put that pain and fear behind her and build a new life. But before that can happen, she has to confront the man who tried to destroy her.

Can she find the courage to face her monster in court, or will she trust the survival instincts that are screaming for her to run while there’s still time?

DA Shannon Marx is known for her skill and force of personality in a courtroom, and she's determined to put Collin Wells where he belongs: behind bars and away from everyone she loves. But Collin Wells is unlike any defendant she's ever come up against in court. He's intelligent, charming, and completely devoid of conscience.

Will the jury be able to see the monster beneath the civilized veneer?

Collin Wells is a man accustomed to getting what he wants, and he has every intention of walking out of that courtroom a free man. He will fight with everything he has, and if Shannon and her loved ones can be certain of anything, it's that Collin Wells never fights fair