The decade ended with a stellar year for my career.  2009 saw the release of only one new book – SILENT KILLER – but that book hit the NYT bestseller list and remained on the list for four weeks.  Add to that great news, the fact that this book stayed on the USA Today bestseller list for five weeks and garnered some really good reviews, as well as a slew of wonderful reader e-mails.  SILENT KILLER was set in the fictitious Alabama town of Dunmore, a small town similar to my own hometown of Tuscumbia.  Secondary characters in this book demanded their own story, so look for Sheriff Mike Birkett to show up as the hero in DEAD BY MIDNIGHT (Zebra Romantic Suspense, February 2010) and Lorie Hammonds, his high school sweetheart who is being stalked by a ruthless killer, as the heroine.  Also, readers who have become intrigued by mysterious billionaire, Griffin Powell, will see more of Griff, Nic, and their friends in this book, just as they did in SILENT KILLER last year.

I signed a new 4-book contract with Kensington in 2009 for four more romantic suspense novels, so plans are in the works for another Powell Agency novel in 2011, this one featuring Maleah Perdue and Derek Lawrence. And I’m hoping to give readers what they’ve been asking for – Griff & Nic as hero & heroine of their own book again, possibly in 2012.

Two of these four new books will be stand-alone novels not associated with the Powell Agency. You will not want to miss my September novel, DON’T CRY, set in Chattanooga, Tennessee.  I’ll be introducing a new cast of characters.  Leading off as the hero is J.D. Cass, a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agent and heroine, Audrey Sherrod, a mental health counselor.  A startling connection ties a string of recent bizarre murders to a long-ago series of horrifying crimes that Audrey hoped would never resurface – crimes that hit all too close to home.

2010 will see four reissues/reprints, including two for HQN.  In January this year, look for my first HQN The Protectors novel, WORTH DYING FOR, repackaged with a new dynamite cover.  So if you missed the book when it was first released, this is your chance to pick up a copy.  The second HQN will round out the year with the release of a 2-in-1 HQN reissue, WITNESS, featuring my first two The Protectors novels, DEFENDING HIS OWN and GUARDING JEANNIE.  For readers who have been asking for Harlequin to reprint the series, here’s your chance to start at the beginning.

Avon/Harper Collins in the UK will release two Beverly Barton novels.  In March, BEG TO DIE hits the stands.  This is a reissue of the Zebra novel, THE LAST TO DIE.  Then DEAD BY MIDNIGHT comes out in the UK in September.