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  PRAISE FOR THE SENSATIONAL

  NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERS OF

  Linda Howard

  NOW YOU SEE HER

  “Steamy romance morphs into murder mystery....”

  —People

  “An eerie, passionate, and thrilling tale of murder and the paranormal.... NOW YOU SEE HER is bound to catapult the phenomenal Linda Howard to a whole new level.”

  —Romantic Times

  “Sensual page-turning. . . . Linda Howard brings psychic phenomena, hot sex, and deadly danger into the life of an appealing young artist. . . . Howard keeps the suspense streamlined and straightforward.”

  —Amazon.com

  KILL AND TELL

  “Linda Howard meshes hot sex, emotional impact, and gripping tension in this perfect example of what romantic suspense ought to be.”

  —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

  “A riveting masterpiece of suspense. Linda Howard is a superbly original storyteller.”

  —Iris Johansen, New York Times bestselling author of And Then You Die

  “An explosive conclusion to a clever, smoothly-crafted tale of adventure, romance, and intrigue.”

  —Lansing State Journal (MI)

  “Ms. Howard has always been a riveting storyteller, and every time I think she can’t do better, she does. The pages turn themselves.... A must-read.

  —Rendezvous

  SON OF THE MORNING

  “Linda Howard offers a romantic time-travel thriller with a fascinating premise ... gripping passages, and steamy sex.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “A complex tale that’s rich with detail, powerful characters and stunning sensuality. This is a story you won’t be able to put down until you reach the explosive conclusion. It’s no wonder that Linda Howard is the best of the best.”

  —CompuServe Romance Reviews

  “Son of the Morning is an incredible blending of romantic suspense, supernatural, medieval, and time-travel genres in what will be claimed as one of the top action novels of the year.”

  —Painted Rock (online review)

  SHADES OF TWILIGHT

  “Wow! This powerful saga about a wealthy dynasty that is torn apart by a vicious murder will chill, thrill, and excite you.... [A] tale of lust, greed, and revenge ... that will leave you staggered and extremely satisfied. Linda Howard never fails to create a story that will shock, amaze, and warm you with its gifted touch. This is a passion-filled masterpiece.”

  —Rendezvous

  “Family, loyalty, love, sex and revenge steam up the pages.... Howard . . . maintain[s] tension through a twist-filled plot.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  AFTER THE NIGHT

  “Small towns are the perfect background for mysterious secrets, and Ms. Howard pens a tale loaded with them. Her sensuous style of writing makes the reader aware of the all-consuming desire between the hero and heroine. Add to this the dramatic climax, and you get extraordinary pleasure from this novel.”

  —Rendezvous

  “A real southern scorcher. . . . Howard is a master of sexual tension.”

  —Gothic Journal

  DREAM MAN

  “A contemporary thriller/romance.... Sexy, very hard to put down.”

  —The Newport Daily News (RI)

  “The incomparable Linda Howard brings high-voltage power and hard-edged sensuality to this emotional roller coaster of a novel, which is sure to keep readers riveted until the final nail-biting conclusion. They don’t get much better than this.”

  —Romantic Times

  “Ms. Howard has wonderful pacing, a good ear for dialogue, and knows how to turn on the steam. DREAM MAN’s mix of drama, violence, paranormal ability and sex makes it a perfect candidate for a USA Original Picture.”

  —Birmingham Post-Herald (AL)

  “Linda Howard never fails to entertain with a powerful and passionate story. . . . One of the best.”

  —Rendezvous

  Books by Linda Howard

  A Lady of the West

  Angel Creek

  The Touch of Fire

  Heart of Fire

  Dream Man

  After the Night

  Shades of Twilight

  Son of the Morning

  Kill and Tell

  Now You See Her

  All the Queen’s Men

  Mr. Perfect

  Open Season

  Published by POCKET BOOKS

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  POCKET BOOKS, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  Copyright © 1998 by Linda Howington

  Originally published in hardcover in 1998 by Pocket Books

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Pocket Books, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

  ISBN: 0-671-56882-5

  0-7434-8289-1 (pbk)

  ISBN-13:978-1-4165-0380-4

  eISBN-13: 978-1-4391-4087-1

  First Pocket Books trade paperback edition July 2003

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  POCKET and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Epilogue

  PROLOGUE

  Clayton, New York

  It was the third of September, one of those cloudless, perfect days nestled between the heat of summer and the approaching winter chill. The sky was so blue that Sweeney, getting out of her car in the supermarket parking lot, went stock-still and gawked upward at that amazing blue bowl as if she had never seen sky before. She hadn’t—not like this.

  If there was one thing in life she knew, it was colors, and she had never before seen that particular shade of blue. It was incredible, deeper and darker, richer than any sky had the right to be. Just for today, this perfect day, the haze of atmosphere between heaven and earth had thinned, and she stood closer to the edge of the universe than she ever had before, so close that she felt almost as if she might be sucked into that blue, right away from earth.

  Could she reproduce it? Mentally she mixed the pigments, automatically discarding some as her internal eye judged the results. No, that touch of white would make the shade too babyish. This wasn’t a wimpy blue—it was the most kick-ass blue she had ever seen. This was pure and dramatic, pulling her in and overwhelming her with the richness of its beau