NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A desperate manhunt ensues for a killer who preys upon his victims’ minds—just before he claims their lives—in this blockbuster novel from #1 bestselling author Lisa Gardner. What do you do when a killer targets the people you love the most? When he knows how to make them vulnerable? When he knows the same about you? These are the questions that haunt FBI Special Agent Pierce Quincy. The police say his daughter’s death was an accident. Quincy will risk everything to learn the truth—and there’s only one person willing to help. Ex-cop Rainie Conner had once been paired professionally—and personally—with the brilliant FBI profiler. He helped her through the darkest days of her life. Now it’s time for Rainie to return the favor. But this killer is like none these two hard-boiled pros have ever encountered. This twisted psychopath has an insatiable hunger for revenge...and for fear. As the clock ticks down to one unspeakably intimate act of vengeance, the only way Rainie can unmask this killer is to step directly in his murderous path. She will become a murder waiting to happen. She will be . . . the next accident . Praise for The Next Accident “A cool and mostly accomplished psychokiller tale . . . Connor [is] delightfully brash and spunky.” — Kirkus Reviews Praise for the bestselling novels of Lisa Gardner The Third Victim “A suspenseful, curl-up winter read, this thriller teems with crisp, realistic dialogue and engaging characters.” — Publishers Weekly The Other Daughter “Sheer terror . . . a great read.” —Iris Johansen The Perfect Husband “A streamlined bang-up addition to the oeuvre of Tami Hoag, Karen Robards, Elizabeth Powell and, these days, even Nora Roberts.” — Publishers Weekly “A dark, powerful tale of nerve-shattering suspense.” —Tami Hoag Lisa Gardner is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty suspense novels, including The Neighbor , which won Thriller of the Year from the International Thriller Writers. An avid hiker, traveler and cribbage player, she lives in the mountains of New Hampshire with her family. Portland, Oregon Monday afternoon, private investigator Lorraine Conner sat hunched over her paper-swamped desk, punched a few more numbers into her old, cagey laptop, then scowled at the results shown on the screen. She tried the numbers again, got the same dismal results, and gave them the same dark look. The Quicken-generated budget, however, refused to be intimidated. Damn file, she thought. Damn budget, damn heat. And damn circular fan that she’d purchased just last week and was already refusing to work unless she whacked it twice in the head. She stopped now to give it the requisite double-smack and was finally rewarded with a feeble breeze. Christ, this weather was killing her. It was three in the afternoon on Monday. Outside the sun was shining, the heat about to crest for another record-breaking July day in downtown Portland, Oregon. Technically speaking, Portland didn’t get as ridiculously hot as the East Coast. Nor, in theory, did it get as humid as the South. These days, unfortunately, the climate didn’t seem to realize that. Rainie had long since traded in her T-shirt for a white tank top. It was now plastered to her skin, while her elbows left rings of condensation on the one clear spot on her desk. If it got any hotter, she was taking her laptop into the shower. Rainie’s loft offered central air, but as part of her “belt-tightening” program, she was cooling her vast, one-room condo the old-fashioned way—she’d opened the windows and turned on a small desk fan. Unfortunately, that little matter of heat rising was conspiring against her. The eighth-floor condo wasn’t magically getting any cooler, while the smog content had increased tenfold. Bad day for belt-tightening programs. Especially in Portland’ s trendy Pearl district, where iced coffee was served on practically every street corner, and all the little cafés prided themselves on their gourmet ice cream. God knows the majority of her upwardly mobile neighbors were probably sitting in Starbucks right now, basking in air-conditioned glory while trying to choose between an iced Chai or nonfat mocha latté. Not Rainie. No, the new and improved Lorraine Conner was sitting in her trendy loft in this trendy little neighborhood, trying to decide which was more important—money for the Laundromat, or a new carburetor for her fifteen-year-old clunker. On the one hand, clean clothes always made a good impression when meeting a new client. On the other hand, it didn’t do her any good to land new cases if she had no means of carrying them out. Details, details. She tried a fresh round of numbers in her Quicken file. Showing a gross lack of imagination, the file spit back the same red results. She sighed. Rainie had just passed the Oregon Board of Investigator’s test to receive her license. In the good news department, this meant she cou