Someone is playing deadly games. Lieutenant Luke Pittman lies in the hospital in a coma after being attacked by one of their own. Veronica Manes, Burning Lake's most respected modern-day witch, is dead, her murder left unsolved. Natalie Lockhart has become embroiled in a case with threads that become increasingly difficult to untangle. Now, a new horror is uncovered, one that shocks the town as never before, and the dark, shadowy path forward for Natalie is paved with challenges that haunt her past--Veronica's unsolved case. Her sister's traumatic murder. The long-lost disappearance of her old best friend. Natalie's obsession with finding the truth leads to a twisted, elemental struggle between good and evil--and nothing will ever be the same again. The woods have secrets. The trees are carved with curses. There's something wicked in Burning Lake.

The stunning new psychological thriller from the award-winning author of Darkness Peering and The Breathtaker.

Child psychiatrist Kate Wolfe's world comes crashing down when one of her young patients commits suicide, so when a troubled girl is left at the hospital ward, she doubts her ability to help. But the girl knows things about Kate's past, things she shouldn't know, forcing Kate to face the murky evidence surrounding her own sister s murder sixteen years before. A murder for which a man is about to be executed. Unearthing secrets about her own family, and forced to face both her difficult relationship with her distant father and the possibility that her mother might also have met a violent end, the shocking final twist brings Kate face to face with her deepest fear.

Natalie Lockhart always knew she was going to be a cop. A rookie detective in Burning Lake, a town known for its dark past, she was raised on the wisdom of her chief-of-police father. Natalie uses these lessons and the scars of her past - a beloved sister, murdered as a teenager - to give families the closure she never got. Her task is to uncover the whereabouts of nine missing transients who have disappeared. One night, after a day of no leads, she offers a ride home to a fellow cop. What she sees next will unravel everything. Daisy Bruckner - beloved schoolteacher, wife to a cop, pregnant - is dead on her kitchen floor. A suspect comes to mind almost immediately - Riley Skinner, Daisy's student and one of the disenfranchised youths of Burning Lake. But it's not that simple. Riley is in a coma, collapsed only hours after her death. And Daisy had secrets of her own. Natalie knows there is more to this case, but as the investigation deepens, even she cannot predict the far-reaching consequences - for Daisy, for Burning Lake - and for herself. As the hunt for Daisy's killer ties in with the loose thread of her sister's murder, Natalie must use every skill she possesses to solve the crimes before her - and confront the darkest parts of herself. Spellbinding and haunting, Trace of Evil is a dazzling novel of twisting suspense and the effect of secrets left uncovered.