The fourth book in the Paige Turner Mysteries series, 2006

I am, as always, most grateful to family and friends-especially Harry Matetsky

My good friends at Literacy Nassau are a source of much-needed encouragement, as are my fellow mystery writers and readers at Sisters in Crime-Central Jersey. And my co-agents, Annelise Robey and Meg Ruley of the Jane Rotrosen Agency, and my editor at Penguin Group (USA), Martha Bushko, are the most inspiring and indulgent supporters any writer could ask for. A million thanks to them and every one of my readers.

DANGER IS A POWERFUL DRUG. IT MAKES your heart throb, your head buzz, your limbs quiver, and your skin crawl. It sends adrenaline shooting through your veins like a bolt of electricity. It can make you weak as a kitten, or stronger than Charles Atlas. It can fill you with terror, or cause you to feel so brave and defiant you’d gladly challenge Senator Joe McCarthy (and all the rest of his hateful red-baiting House Un-American Activities Committee vigilantes) to a duel.

You have to be very careful, though. Danger is such a devious, potent, and seductive stimulant that once you develop a taste for it, you can easily become addicted.

As I seem to be.

I’m Paige Turner (more about the preposterous name later), and I’m the only female on the six-person staff of a sensational (okay, trashy) true-crime magazine called Daring Detective. Normally, my job wouldn’t be especially dangerous-except for the fact that, as an abnormally assertive woman, I’m always in danger of getting fired-but since I’m also the only female writer in the whole darn detective magazine industry, and since I’m always trying to prove myself to be as tough and capable as any man… well, let’s just say I have a tendency to put myself in a teensy bit too much peril.