Most Popular Books by Jeffery Deaver

THE INSPIRATION FOR THE CBS ORIGINAL SERIES TRACKER In New York Times bestselling master of suspense Jeffery Deaver''s riveting thriller, reward seeker Colter Shaw plunges into the woods and races the clock in a case where nothing is quite what it seems. Allison Parker is on the run with her teenage daughter, Hannah, and Colter Shaw has been hired by her eccentric boss, entrepreneur Marty Harmon, to find and protect her. Though he’s an expert at tracking missing persons—even those who don’t wish to be found—Shaw has met his match in Allison, who brings all her skills as a brilliant engineer designing revolutionary technology to the game of evading detection. The reason for Allison’s panicked flight is soon apparent. She’s being stalked by her ex-husband, Jon Merritt. Newly released from prison and fueled by blinding rage, Jon is a man whose former profession as a police detective makes him uniquely suited for the hunt. And he’s not alone. Two hitmen are also hot on her heels—an eerie pair of thugs who take delight not only in murder but in the sport of devising clever ways to make bodies disappear forever. Even if Shaw manages to catch up with Allison and her daughter, his troubles will just be beginning. As Shaw ventures further into the wilderness, the truth becomes as hard to decipher as the forest’s unmarked trails...and peril awaits at every turn.

A collection of short stories of mystery and suspense.

Forensic detective Lincoln Rhyme is back with his most harrowing case yet in this newest installment of Jeffrey Deaver''s New York Times bestselling series. A businessman snatched from an Upper East Side street in broad daylight. A miniature hangman''s noose left at the scene. A nine-year-old girl, the only witness to the crime. With a crime scene this puzzling, forensic expertise of the highest order is absolutely essential. Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs are called in to investigate. Soon the case takes a stranger turn: a recording surfaces of the victim being slowly hanged, his desperate gasps the backdrop to an eerie piece of music. The video is marked as the work of The Composer... Despite their best efforts, the suspect gets away. So when a similar kidnapping occurs on a dusty road outside Naples, Italy, Rhyme and Sachs don''t hesitate to rejoin the hunt. But the search is now a complex case of international cooperation--and not all those involved may be who they seem. Sachs and Rhyme find themselves playing a dangerous game, with lives all across the globe hanging in the balance.

A new Colter Shaw story from the bestselling and award-winning master of suspense. Colter Shaw makes his living traveling the country and locating missing persons, sometimes collecting reward money, sometimes not. Many of his cases are those that the police are unable or unwilling to solve, but the job that brings him to a small-town in Ohio has already been solved. A teenage boy has been arrested and convicted for murder, but his parents are convinced that he didn’t commit the crime—and offer a reward to anyone who can prove it. Colter’s investigation into the murder, the shooting of a local drug dealer, brings him deep into a small-town conspiracy, with plenty of members who will go to any lengths to keep Shaw from learning the truth.

Look who''s back to chill readers to the bone... The first novel featuring Detective Lincoln Rhyme, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Stone Monkey.

Acclaimed bestselling author Deaver takes readers on a brand-new adventure: a race to find and stop a professional criminal whose gruesome specialty lies in extracting information from his innocent victims by any means necessary.

The first installment in Jeffery Deaver’s Colter Shaw series—the inspiration for the upcoming CBS original series TRACKER starring Justin Hartley! The son of a survivalist family, Colter Shaw is an expert tracker. Now he makes a living as a “reward seeker,” traveling the country to help police solve crimes and locate missing persons for private citizens. “You’ve been abandoned. Escape if you can. Or die with dignity.” Hired by the father of a young woman who has gone missing in Silicon Valley, Shaw''s search takes him into the dark heart of America’s cutthroat billion-dollar video-game industry. When another person goes missing, Shaw must ask: Is a madman bringing a twisted video game to life? Encountering eccentric designers, trigger-happy gamers, and ruthless tech titans, Shaw soon learns that he isn''t the only one on the hunt: someone is on his trail and closing fast.... Named a Crime Novel of the Year by The New York Times Book Review, The Never Game proves once more why “Deaver is a genius when it comes to manipulation and deception” (Associated Press). CBS, CBS Eye Design, and related logos are trademarks of CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. TRACKER is a trademark of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. Used under license.

From the bestselling author of the Bone Collector novels, soon to be an NBC series Five feet two inches of slick repartee, near-purple hair, and poetic imagination, twenty-year-old Rune hasn''t been in Manhattan for very long. But she''s crafty enough to have found a squatter''s paradise in an empty TriBeCa loft, and a video store job that feeds her passion for old movies. It''s a passion she shares with her favorite customer, Mr. Kelly, a lonely old man who rents the same video over and over. The flick is a noir classic based on a real-life unsolved bank heist and a million missing dollars. It''s called Manhattan Is My Beat. That''s the tape Rune is picking up from Mr. Kelly''s shabby apartment when she finds him shot to death. The police suspect a robbery gone wrong, but Rune is certain the key to solving the murder is hidden somewhere in the hazy, black-and-white frames of Mr. Kelly''s beloved movie. But as Rune hits the mean streets of New York to find answers, she gets caught up in a dangerous adventure more chilling than anything Hollywood could dream up. As her story draws to its terrifying conclusion, Rune''s final close-up may include the killer of a co-star.

A deviously clever story featuring the beloved forensic detective Lincoln Rhyme. When the FBI comes to Lincoln Rhyme with the news that a mysterious assassin is targeting him, the detective is not particularly concerned. With his long career putting away criminals, he is accustomed to threats on his life, and has designed his Upper West Side townhome to be secure against nearly any threat. But when the assassin gets too close for comfort, shadowing Rhyme and his wife Amelia Sachs as they go about their daily life, Rhyme determines to find out why this person is after him. He must put himself inside the mind of a killer in order to save his own life, and possibly the lives of those he loves most.

Special Agent Kathryn Dance must use her considerable skills at investigation and body language analysis to stop a celebrity stalker set in the world of country music.

Aaron Matthews is a man with a gift: he can talk anyone into doing almost anything. As a psychologist he used that talent to help people. Now he''s using it against one man for revenge. With former trial lawyer Tate Collier as his target, the brilliant, ruthless Matthews knows the easiest way to destroy his adversary is to strike at the point of least resistance, which for Collier is his teenage daughter.

From the bestselling author of the Bone Collector novels, soon to be an NBC series Rune is an aspiring filmmaker with more ambition than political savvy, paying her dues as an assistant cameraperson for the local news. But she''s got her eyes on the prize, the network''s hot newsmagazine, Current Events—and she''s got the story she knows will get her there. Poking around in the video archives, Rune spots a taped interview with Randy Boggs, who''s doing hard time in Attica for a murder he claims he didn''t commit. Rune can''t say exactly why, but she''s sure he''s innocent. If she can prove it, Current Events won''t merely report the news, it''ll make news—and Rune''s career. But what she could be writing is Randy Boggs''s epitaph—and her own. Rune''s newly discovered witness soon turns up dead. A hit man from Miami is on Rune''s trail, and Boggs is finding prison even more dangerous than before. Someone wants this story killed, and it could be the girl with the camera who ends up on the cutting room floor.

Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs return to New York City to investigate a triple murder and confront a killer terrorizing couples at their happiest--and most vulnerable in this explosive New York Times bestseller. In the early hours of a quiet, weekend morning in Manhattan''s Diamond District, a brutal triple murder shocks the city. Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs quickly take the case. Curiously, the killer has left behind a half-million dollars'' worth of gems at the murder scene, a jewelry store on 47th street. As more crimes follow, it becomes clear that the killer''s target is not gems, but engaged couples themselves. The Promisor vows to take the lives of men and women during their most precious moments--midway through the purchase of an engagement ring, after a meeting with a wedding planner, trying on the perfect gown for a day that will never come. The Promisor arrives silently, armed with knife or gun, and a time of bliss is transformed, in an instant, to one of horror. Soon the Promiser makes a dangerous mistake: leaving behind an innocent witness, Vimal Lahori, a talented young diamond cutter, who can help Rhyme and Sachs blow the lid off the case. They must track down Vimal before the killer can correct his fatal error. Then disaster strikes, threatening to tear apart the very fabric of the city--and providing the perfect cover for the killer to slip through the cracks.

"The master of ticking-bomb suspense" (People) returns with a devilishly good thriller, and reward seeker Colter Shaw''s most personal case to date. Just hours after the harrowing events of The Never Game and The Goodbye Man, Colter Shaw finds himself in San Francisco, where he has taken on the mission his father began years ago: finding a missing courier bag containing evidence that will bring down a corporate espionage firm responsible for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of deaths. Following the enigmatic clues his father left behind, Shaw plays cat and mouse with the company''s sadistic enforcers, as he speeds from one gritty neighborhood in the City by the Bay to another. Suddenly, the job takes on a frightening urgency: Only by finding the courier bag can he expose the company and stop the murder of an entire family--slated to die in forty-eight hours. With the help of an unexpected figure from his past, and with the enforcers closing the net, Shaw narrows in on the truth--and learns that the courier bag contains something unexpected: a secret that could only be described as catastrophic. Filled with dozens of twists and reversals, The Final Twist is a nonstop race against time to save the family.... and to keep the devastating secret Shaw has uncovered from falling into the wrong hands.

The "master of ticking-bomb suspense" (People) Jeffery Deaver delivers the latest thriller featuring his beloved protagonists Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs as they search for a criminal whose fascination with breaking locks terrorizes New York City. A woman awakes in the morning to find that someone has picked her apartment’s supposedly impregnable door lock and rearranged personal items, even sitting beside her while she slept. The intrusion, the police learn, is a message to the entire city of carnage to come. Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs are brought in to investigate and soon learn that the sociopathic intruder, who calls himself "the Locksmith,” can break through any lock or security system ever devised. With more victims on the horizon, Rhyme, Sachs and their stable of associates must follow the evidence to the man’s lair… and discover his true mission. Their hunt is interrupted when an internal investigation in the police force uncovers what seems to be a crucial mistake in one of Rhyme''s previous cases. He’s fired as a consultant for the NYPD and must risk jail if he investigates the Locksmith case in secret. The Midnight Lock is a roller-coaster read that takes place over just a few days’ time, features surprise after surprise and offers a fascinating look at the esoteric world of lockpicking.

From the bestselling author of the Bone Collector novels, soon to be an NBC series • “Loaded with character and action and a very devious plot, Mistress of Justice is a top-notch legal thriller.”—Mystery Lovers News Taylor Lockwood spends her days working as a paralegal in one of New York’s preeminent Wall Street law firms and her nights playing jazz piano anyplace she can. But the rhythm of her life is disrupted when attorney Mitchell Reece requests her help in locating a stolen document that could cost him not only the multimillion-dollar case he’s defending but his career as well. Eager to get closer to this handsome, brilliant, and very private man, Taylor signs on . . . only to find that as she delves deeper and deeper into what goes on behind closed doors at Hubbard, White & Willis, she uncovers more than she wants to kno—including a plentitude of secrets damaging enough to smash careers and dangerous enough to push someone to commit murder. Yet who is capable of going to that extreme? With her life on the line, Taylor is about to learn the lethal answer. . . . “The characters are well drawn, the plot is fast paced, and the writing avoids totally the usual trappings of blockbusterdom. . . . An intelligently written thriller.”—Booklist

THE INSPIRATION FOR THE CBS ORIGINAL SERIES TRACKER In this twisty thriller from the New York Times bestselling master of suspense, reward-seeker Colter Shaw infiltrates a sinister cult after learning that the only way to get somebody out...is to go in. In the wilderness of Washington State, expert tracker Colter Shaw has located two young men accused of a terrible hate crime. But when his pursuit takes a shocking and tragic turn, Shaw becomes desperate to discover what went so horribly wrong and if he is to blame. Shaw''s search for answers leads him to a shadowy organization that bills itself as a grief support group. But is it truly it a community that consoles the bereaved? Or a dangerous cult with a growing body count? Undercover, Shaw joins the mysterious group, risking everything despite the fact that no reward is on offer. He soon finds that some people will stop at nothing to keep their secrets hidden...and to make sure that he or those close to him say “goodbye” forever.

Forensic detective Lincoln Rhyme investigates his strangest case yet in this diabolical new story. A serial killer in the making? Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs are called upon to tackle a crime unlike any they’ve ever faced. An unknown subject is using his formidable skills to work his way into the lives—and hearts—of his victims, all with the goal of utterly destroying them psychologically and emotionally . . . for his pure pleasure. Rhyme recognizes the trademark sadism of a future serial killer, but the man has been meticulously careful—indeed, stopping just short of illegal behavior, ensuring that the criminalist’s forensic skills are useless against him. Will Rhyme and Sachs be able to stop the ruthless perp before the inevitable happens and he decides that breaking people metaphorically is no longer enough?

Writing as William Jeffries, New York Times bestselling author Jeffrey Deaver, the “master of ticking-bomb suspense” (People), delivers a thrilling novel that “exposes the brutal side of the Big Apple” (Publishers Weekly). Every New York City neighborhood has a story, but what John Pellam uncovers in Hell''s Kitchen has a darkness all its own. The Hollywood location scout and former stuntman is in the Big Apple hoping to capture the unvarnished memories of longtime Kitchen residents—such as Ettie Washington—in a no‑budget documentary film. But when a suspicious fire ravages the elderly woman’s crumbling tenement, Pellam realizes that someone might want the past to stay buried. As more buildings and lives go up in flames, Pellam takes to the streets, seeking the twisted pyromaniac who sells services to the highest bidder. But Pellam is unaware that the fires are merely flickering preludes to the arsonist''s ultimate masterpiece, a conflagration of nearly unimaginable proportion, with Hell’s Kitchenu00ad—and John Pellam—at its blackened and searing epicenter.

In his classic thriller The Bone Collector, Jeffery Deaver introduced readers to Lincoln Rhyme-the nation''s most renowned investigator and forensic detective. Now, a new killer is on the loose: a criminal inspired by the Bone Collector. And Rhyme must untangle the twisted web of clues before the killer targets more victims-or Rhyme himself. The killer''s methods are terrifying. He stalks the basements and underground passageways of New York City. He tattoos his victims'' flesh with cryptic messages, using a tattoo gun loaded with poison, resulting in an agonizing, painful death. When a connection is made to the Bone Collector-the serial killer who terrorized New York more than a decade ago-Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs are immediately drawn into the case. Rhyme, Sachs, and the NYPD must race against time to answer the many questions the investigation uncovers: Whom will the killer attack next? What is the message behind the victims'' tattoos? Does the killer''s own inking--a fanged centipede sporting a woman''s face--hold any significance? And what is his ultimate mission? As time runs out, Rhyme discovers that the past has returned to haunt him in the most troubling way imaginable...

NOW A MAJOR TELEVISION EVENT FROM NBC, STARRING RUSSELL HORNSBY, ARIELLE KEBBEL, AND MICHAEL IMPERIOLI. “Deaver’s labyrinthine plots are astonishing”(The New York Times Book Review) in this bestselling thriller featuring a hitman who is out to kill a young girl in Harlem and in order to save her, Lincoln Rhyme has to solve a cold case that’s over 150 years old. Unlocking a cold case with explosive implications for the future of civil rights, forensics expert Lincoln Rhyme and his protégé, Amelia Sachs, must outguess a killer who has targeted a high school girl from Harlem who is digging into the past of one of her ancestors, a former slave. What buried secrets from 140 years ago could have an assassin out for innocent blood? And what chilling message is hidden in his calling card, the hanged man of the tarot deck? Rhyme must anticipate the next strike or become history—in the New York Times bestseller that proves “there is no thriller writer today like Jeffery Deaver” (San Jose Mercury News).

You wait, desperately, for news of your daughter. At last, the door opens. But it is not the negotiators, or the FBI. It is her kidnapper. And he has a gun . . . Two days ago, life was normal. How did it end like this? Every crime scene begins at the end. To know what happened, you must work backwards, piecing together the events that came before. The ultimate thriller writer, Jeffery Deaver puts your brain - and your nerves - to the ultimate test with THE OCTOBER LIST, in a masterful mystery that unfolds from the end back to the beginning with many a breath-taking twist along the way.

The "most clever plotter on the planet"(Publishers Weekly) Jeffery Deaver returns in this twisty new thriller, as forensic criminalist Lincoln Rhyme and detective Amelia Sachs track a criminal with a bizarre and catastrophic m.o.—toppling the construction cranes in New York City. When a New York City construction crane mysteriously collapses, causing mass destruction and injury, Rhyme and Sachs are on the case. A political group claims responsibility for the sabotage and threatens another attack in twenty-four hours, unless its demands are met. The clock is ticking. Then a clue reveals to Rhyme that his nemesis, known as the Watchmaker, has come to town to fulfill his promise of murdering the criminalist. Now Rhyme and Sachs have to dodge his brilliant scheme to destroy them both, while racing against time to stop the construction site terrorists. With New York in a panic, Rhyme and his team must unravel a handful of plots as tightly wound as a timepiece—before more cranes fall, raining down death and destruction from above.

A bus full of children is taken hostage in this “screaming hit” (The New York Times Book Review) from the bestselling author of The Never Game and The Bone Collector. Along a windswept Kansas road, eight vulnerable girls and their helpless teachers are forced off a school bus and held hostage in an abandoned slaughterhouse. The madman who has them at gunpoint has a simple plan: One hostage an hour will die unless the demands are met. Called to the scene is Arthur Potter, the FBI’s best hostage negotiator. He has a plan. But so does one of the hostages—a beautiful teacher who’s willing to do anything to save the lives of her students. Now the clock is ticking as a chilling game of cat and mouse begins.

One of Kirkus Review''s "Best Books of 2013" The shocking end is only the beginning . . . #1 bestselling author Jeffery Deaver has created the most riveting and original novel of the year-a race-against-the-clock mystery, told in reverse. THE OCTOBER LIST Gabriela waits desperately for news of her abducted daughter. At last, the door opens. But it''s not the negotiators. It''s not the FBI. It''s the kidnapper. And he has a gun. How did it come to this? Two days ago, Gabriela''s life was normal. Then, out of the blue, she gets word that her six-year-old daughter has been taken. She''s given an ultimatum: pay half a million dollars and find a mysterious document known as the "October List" within 30 hours, or she''ll never see her child again. A mind-bending novel with twists and turns that unfold from its dramatic climax back to its surprising beginning, THE OCTOBER LIST is Jeffery Deaver at his masterful, inventive best.

A new original story from the bestselling and award-winning master of suspense, featuring Colter Shaw. Colter Shaw is a career "reward-seeker," making his living locating missing persons and collecting reward money in return. In the course of his search for a missing woman, he visits the police station in the small Kansas town of Humble, and, is pulled into a puzzling case. A man is holding a hostage in a lakeside cabin, and the Humble police need Shaw''s experience and know-how to assess the situation, and the captor''s motives. As Shaw begins negotiating, he begins to realize that nothing about the hostage situation is as it seems, including the hostage himself.

In his most provocative "New York Times" bestseller yet, Deaver introduces a German-American hit man who goes deep undercover at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin with orders to assassinate Hitler''s right-hand man.

New York Times bestselling author Jeffery Deaver returns with his next blockbuster thriller featuring forensic detective Lincoln Rhyme. Amelia Sachs is hot on the trail of a killer. She''s chasing him through a department store in Brooklyn when an escalator malfunctions. The stairs give way, with one man horribly mangled by the gears. Sachs is forced to let her quarry escape as she jumps in to try to help save the victim. She and famed forensic detective Lincoln Rhyme soon learn, however, that the incident may not have been an accident at all, but the first in a series of intentional attacks. They find themselves up against one of their most formidable opponents ever: a brilliant killer who turns common products into murder weapons. As the body count threatens to grow, Sachs and Rhyme must race against the clock to unmask his identity--and discover his mission--before more people die.

A vicious killer escapes from a California super-prison and embarks on a mysterious and deadly quest. It''s up to Kathryn Dance and her CBI partners to track him down before he can get to the lone survivor of the murders he had committed. Now in a tall Premium Edition.

A signature Jeffery Deaver. A cat and mouse chase that will leave you breathless.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Never Game and the Lincoln Rhyme novels comes a twisty psychological thriller packed into a terrifying 24 hours... When paranoid schizophrenic killer Michael Hrubek escapes from an institution, there’s no doubt of where he’s headed: to find the woman who put him away and to finally get his revenge. Lis Atcheson knows he’s out there—the man who killed two of her students. He’s haunted every sleepless night ever since she testified against him. Now the nightmares are coming true. He’s watching... and waiting... and he’s going to take Lis to hell with him. With a massive storm coming—in more ways than one—Lis can barely prepare for the dark cloud that approaches, threatening to take everything away from her in one horrifying sweep...

From the bestselling author of the Bone Collector novels, soon to be an NBC series Bill Corde looks down at the face of the murdered girl and sees the horror of sudden death. He cannot know, as he stands there at the trampled, muddy scene beside the college girl’s corpse, that his own life is about to slip into terror. He cannot know that everything he holds precious is about to shatter before his eyes. He cannot know that his career—and his family—are about to enter a new dimension of danger. For Bill Corde, the killer is everything he fears most. For Sarah, Bill’s wild, learning-impaired daughter, trapped in a world of frustration and ridicule, he may be just the person she’s been waiting for. Someone who understands her worries and loneliness. Someone who signs his notes “The Sunshine Man.” Someone she can run away with—even a perfect stranger.

From the bestselling author of the Bone Collector novels, soon to be an NBC series Twenty-one-year-old Rune is an aspiring filmmaker, but so far her only break has been scoring a job as an underpaid production assistant in Manhattan. Still, she''s always on the lookout for the perfect topic for her own film—and she thinks she''s found it when she witnesses the bombing of a triple-X movie theater in Times Square. Rune''s got a great hook for her documentary: She plans to film it through the eyes of Shelly Lowe, the porn star whose movie was playing at the theater when it exploded. But just hours after Rune films a poignant Shelly reflecting on her dreams of becoming a serious actress, a second bomb silences the beautiful film star forever. Was Shelly in the wrong place at the wrong time—or was she the bomber''s target all along? Rune vows to find out the truth behind the death of this blue movie star. But as she struggles to finish shooting her film, Rune''s labor of love may be her final masterpiece—as a shooting of a more lethal kind threatens to write an ending to this story that no one wants to see. . . .

SOON TO BE A MAJOR TELEVISION EVENT FROM NBC, STARRING RUSSELL HORNSBY, ARIELLE KEBBEL, AND MICHAEL IMPERIOLI. Lincoln Rhyme faces “an Orwellian nightmare” (The New York Times) as a twisted techno-genius destroys lives with impunity by stealing personal information from behind the impenetrable walls of cyberspace. Rhyme’s cousin Arthur has been arrested on murder charges, and the evidence against the estranged relative Lincoln hasn’t seen in years is perfect—too perfect. Lincoln and his partner Amelia Sachs piece together a deadly pattern of similarly vicious frame-ups that leads them to the imposing Strategic Systems Datacorp—and a master of identity theft and manipulation known only as “522.” But cracking this ingenious killer’s realm places Rhyme and Sachs exactly where “522” wants them—in line to be the next victims.

It was a "million-dollar bullet," a sniper shot delivered from over a mile away. Its victim was no ordinary mark: he was a United States citizen, targeted by the United States government, and assassinated in the Bahamas. The nation''s most renowned investigator and forensics expert, Lincoln Rhyme, is drafted to investigate. While his partner, Amelia Sachs, traces the victim''s steps in Manhattan, Rhyme leaves the city to pursue the sniper himself. As details of the case start to emerge, the pair discovers that not all is what it seems. When a deadly, knife-wielding assassin begins systematically eliminating all evidence--including the witnesses--Lincoln''s investigation turns into a chilling battle of wits against a cold-blooded killer.

From Jeffery Deaver, New York Times bestselling author of The Empty Chair and The Devil''s Teardrop, comes his trademark "ticking-bomb suspense" (People) that explodes off the page in this heart-stopping thriller. Hard-living Hollywood location scout John Pellam found the perfect backwater Missouri town for shooting a retro gangster film. But when real bullets leave two people dead and one cop paralyzed, Pellam—an unwitting witness to the brutal hits—is suddenly the South’s most wanted man. The feds and local police want him to talk. Mob enforcers want him silenced. And a mysterious blonde just wants him. Trapped in a town full of sinister secrets and deadly deceptions, Pellam must focus on facing down a killer before his own story fades to black.

People in Silicon Valley are dying, at the hands of a psychotic and brilliant computer hacker, code name Phate. He infiltrates their computer, invades their lives, and then - with the perfect line, the perfect personal detail, lures them to their death.