Book Spotlight, Guest Post & Excerpt: Vanished by Elizabeth Heiter

Title: Vanished   

Author: Elizabeth Heiter    

Series: The Profiler, #2      

Published: December 2014, MIRA   

Sometimes the past can haunt you…

Eighteen
years ago, FBI profiler Evelyn Baine’s best friend, Cassie Byers,
disappeared, the third in a series of unsolved abductions. Only a
macabre nursery rhyme was left at the scene, a nursery rhyme that
claimed Evelyn was also an intended victim. Now, after all these years
of silence, another girl has gone missing in South Carolina, and the
Nursery Rhyme Killer is taking credit. But is Cassie’s abductor really
back, or is there a copycat at work?

Sometimes the past is best forgotten…

Evelyn
has waited eighteen years for a chance to investigate, but when she
returns to Rose Bay, she finds a dark side to the seemingly idyllic
town. As the place erupts in violence and the kidnapper strikes again,
Evelyn knows this is her last chance. If she doesn’t figure out what
happened to Cassie eighteen years ago, it may be Evelyn’s turn to vanish
without a trace.

When an Old Crime
Resurfaces

You often hear about cold cases being solved because of new
advances in DNA – new tests that can be run on old evidence that finally gives
closure to a family somewhere waiting for answers.  Rarely do you hear about a case that’s been
cold for more than a decade where the criminal suddenly comes back after years
of silence.

But that’s just what happens in the second book of my
Profiler series, VANISHED.

It’s not unprecedented. 
I did a lot of research into real-life cases where a serial criminal
went dormant for more than a decade and then suddenly popped back into the
limelight.  When these criminals suddenly
return, you always wonder: Why did they stop for so long?  Or did they never stop at all, but just hide
their abductions or murders so well they were never linked?

In VANISHED, my FBI profiler heroine has to give cops the
answers to all of those questions when the Nursery Rhyme Killer abducts a new
victim after eighteen years of silence.  But
this case is atypical for her for another reason, too: Evelyn has a deeply
personal connection.  Eighteen years
earlier, her best friend Cassie was the third and last victim of the Nursery
Rhyme Killer, abducted out of her bedroom one night and never found.  The note left behind said he’d also taken
Evelyn; no one knows why she was spared, and Evelyn has lived with that
survivor’s guilt ever since.

So, she does what any good friend – and successful profiler
– would do.  She finagles her way onto
the case, traveling back to her hometown of Rose Bay, South Carolina, to
profile the abductor.  Along the way, she
has to ask herself: Since Cassie was never found, is there any possibility
she’s still alive?  Is the Nursery Rhyme
Killer really back, or could it be a
copycat?  If it is the same person, will
Evelyn finally learn why she was spared? 
Or this time, will the Nursery Rhyme Killer make her disappear, too?

About the Author: ELIZABETH HEITER likes her suspense to feature strong
heroines, chilling villains, and psychological twists. Her research has taken
her into the minds of serial killers, through murder investigations, and onto
the FBI Academy’s shooting range.  She
writes a psychological suspense series (The Profiler) for MIRA and a romantic
suspense series (The Lawmen) for Harlequin Intrigue.   

Authors Links: 

Website   |   Twitter   |   Facebook  |   Pinterest   |   Goodreads

Books:

Profiler Series 

#1:  HUNTED, Available Now – My Review

#2:  VANISHED, Available Now – My Review

#3:  SEIZED, Fall 2015

 

Lawmen Series

#1:  DISARMING DETECTIVE, Available Now

#2:  SEDUCED BY THE SNIPER, Feb. 17

#3:  SWAT SECRET ADMIRER, Mar. 17

 

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Brief Excerpt:

“I’m looking for Evelyn Baine.” The voice was vaguely
familiar and every word vibrated with tension. “The Evelyn Baine from Rose Bay.
This is Julie Byers. Cassie’s mom.”

Whatever she said next was drowned out under a sudden
ringing in Evelyn’s ears, under a bittersweet flood of memories. Cassie, the
little girl next door who’d come over the day Evelyn had moved in with her
grandparents and announced they were going to be best friends. The girl who
hadn’t given a damn that Evelyn was the only person in town—including Evelyn’s
grandparents—who wasn’t white, at least not entirely white. And eighteen years
ago, in Rose Bay, that had mattered.

Cassie had been Evelyn’s first real friend, a symbol of
everything that was supposed to change in her life when she came to stay with
her grandparents.

For two years, she and Cassie had been inseparable. And then
one night, Cassie had disappeared from her bed. In her place, her abductor had
left his calling card, a macabre nursery rhyme.

Cassie had never come home. Julie Byers calling now,
eighteen years later, could only mean one thing. They’d found her.