Stranger in the Room: A Novel (Keye Street) - Hardcover

Williams, Amanda Kyle

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0553808087 ISBN 13: 9780553808087

Publisher: Bantam, 2012

Synopsis

Fresh from her debut, The Stranger You Seek—which Publishers Weekly called “an explosive, unpredictable, and psychologically complex thriller that turns crime fiction clichés inside out”—Amanda Kyle Williams delivers a second thrilling Keye Street novel, perfect for fans of Karin Slaughter and Patricia Cornwell.

That bullet was meant for you.
 
Summer is smoldering through Atlanta on Fourth of July weekend, as fireworks crack through the air and steam rises from the pavement on Peachtree. Private investigator and ex–FBI profiler Keye Street wants nothing more than a couple of quiet days alone with her boyfriend, Aaron—but, as usual, murder gets in the way.
 
I will find her.
 
A.P.D. Lieutenant Aaron Rauser is called to the disturbing scene of the strangling death of a thirteen-year-old boy. Meanwhile, Keye must deal with not one but two of her own investigations: In the hills of Creeklaw County, there’s a curious case involving chicken feed and a crematorium, and in Atlanta, Keye’s emotionally fragile cousin Miki is convinced she is being stalked. Given Miki’s history of drug abuse and mental problems, Keye is reluctant to accept her cousin’s tale of a threatening man inside her house late one night. But as a recovering alcoholic herself, Keye can’t exactly begrudge a woman her addictions—especially since Miki drives Keye to near-relapses at every turn. And yet, Miki is family, and Keye must help her—even if it means tempting her own demons.
 
I always find her.
 
All hell breaks loose when another murder—the apparent hanging of an elderly man—hits disturbingly close to home for Keye. And though the two victims have almost nothing in common, there are bizarre similarities between this case and that of Aaron’s strangled teen. Is there a single faceless predator, a calculating murderer targeting his prey at random? Only a skilled profiler like Keye Street can help the A.P.D. find him. With the threat of more deaths to come, Keye works on pure instinct alone—and soon realizes that a killer is circling ever closer to the people she loves the most.
 
Praise for Amanda Kyle Williams’s The Stranger You Seek
 
“An exceptionally smart and harrowing character-driven debut by a welcome new thriller writer.”—New York Times bestselling author Karin Slaughter
 
“A creepy, suspenseful, breathtaking ride . . . [Keye] Street is a unique and worthy addition to the rich tradition of damaged and tough private detectives.”—Associated Press
 
“[Williams] keeps the suspense taut and the humor snarky, with an ending that will have you slapping your foreheard over clues you missed.”—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
 
“With its shocking triple-twist climax, this is the best private eye debut since Dennis Lehane’s A Drink Before the War.”—The Plain Dealer
 
“An explosive, unpredictable, and psychologically complex thriller.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
 
“A dark, gritty thriller, The Stranger You Seek is a sensational debut. Readers will relish this story’s many captivating, powerful, and compelling layers.”—New York Times bestselling author Julia Spencer-Fleming

About this title

Review

Author One-on-One: Julia Spencer-Fleming and Amanda Kyle Williams
A former military brat, New York Times bestselling author Julia Spencer-Fleming grew up in places as diverse as Montgomery, Rome, Stuttgart and Syracuse. A graduate of Ithaca College, George Washington University and the University of Maine School of Law, she took up writing while still a stay-at-home mother of two. During the time it took to finish her first novel, she got a full-time job at a Portland, Maine, law firm and had a third child. Julia didn’t want to write yet another lawyer-sleuth, so she used her army past and a keen eye for the goings-on at her Episcopal church to create Clare Fergusson, first female priest in the small Adirondack town of Millers Kill. The resulting series has won or been nominated for every American mystery award available, including the Edgar, the Anthony, and the Agatha. Her next book, Through the Evil Days, will be released in May 2013.

Now happily quit of the law, Julia lives in the Maine countryside with three kids, two dogs and one husband.

JSF: Could Keye Street exist anywhere but Atlanta, or is she the product of her city?
AKW: Hard to imagine Keye without her southern roots. The South has a way of shaping you. It gets inside you. She loves the crazy weather and the pine forests. She loves the city and the food. There’s a couple of lines from Stranger In The Room that explains her relationship to her geography. “ You don’t merely exist here. You make a blood-pact with it the moment the soft, moist air fills your nostrils with the sensual scent of confederate jasmine and floods your DNA like reproductive seed.”

JSP: In The Stranger You Seek, Keye is introduced as a disgraced former profiler. Do you think she still carries that disgrace, or has she moved on in Stranger in the Room?
AKW: It’s getting better. She can make jokes now about being fired, about being unable to manage drinking. But make no mistake, losing the thing she’d worked toward and wanted her whole life and knowing that she sabotaged her own career, marked her. Keye’s not only a product of the American South, she’s a product of addiction. Shame, disgrace, it’s one of the tricks of addiction. It hammers your self-esteem. So that theme had been playing out for years before we met Keye in The Stranger You Seek. She’s sober now and relearning life, but you learn a way of being, of hiding, of being secretive, of always feeling like less when you’re feeding a drug or alcohol habit. So that’s one of those demons she has to occasionally wrestle down—all the learned behaviors around addiction. But Keye Street is a survivor. She’s not a victim. Keye owns her issues and works on them. And she does it with a sense of humor. Laughter keeps her up. Finding the funny in the little things is Keye’s great talent. And she’s okay with laughing at herself too.

JSF: What’s next for Keye?
AKW: Book 3 in the series Don’t Talk To Strangers. I’m working on it now and I’m really excited about where the series is going and where Keye is headed. She’s using her profiling skills to consult with local law enforcement more and more often. It’s how she’s bouncing back and getting to do what she loves—examining the psychological needs and dark fantasies of a violent repeat offender.

About the Author

Amanda Kyle Williams is the author of The Stranger You Seek. Williams is currently at work on the third Keye Street thriller, Don’t Talk to Strangers.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bantam
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0553808087
• ISBN 13: 9780553808087
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320