Paul Bern, es un artista forense cuya labor es reconstruir cabezas y caras a partir de cráneos. Bern se está recuperando de la pérdida de su mujer, cuando su vida sufre un inesperado cambio: Una misteriosa mujer le da un cráneo que ha pasado de contrabando desde México. Cuando Bern empieza la reconstrucción artística de la cara, se va dando cuenta que él mismo guarda un cierto parecido con el muerto.

Harry Strand arrastra con un pasado profesional como miembro de un organismo de inteligencia norteamericano y con el constante intento de olvidar la muerte de su mujer. Con la intención de hacer borron y cuenta nueva en su vida, se introduce en el mundo d

In Paris, American sculptor Ross Marteau is renowned for his sensual depictions of women's bodies. After his latest love affair ends violently, he retreats to his home in Texas to start a new commission. In his local restaurant he meets Celeste, a charismatically beautiful woman, and she suggests another commission to him - her sister Leda. Intrigued he agrees to meet Leda and discovers that as well as being the most beautiful woman he has ever seen she is also the most grotesque, her body distorted by her being a hunchback. Fascinated by the challenge sculpting her would entail, he agrees to take the commission. Soon he is obsessively in love with Celeste and obsessively intrigued by Leda, and he finds himself pulled deeper and deeper into their world until someone close to them is killed, and Ross finds himself so deeply ensnared in their web of dark secrets and twisted motivations that he is close to mortal suffocation.

Dust jacket copy from original hardcover edition: David L. Lindsey is one of those rare writers who have enjoyed both critical and commercial success. His six previous novels have received widespread acclaim for their elegant writing and vivid character, but they also have been virtually impossible to put down, and his last novel, Mercy, was a huge national bestseller. Now, in Body of Truth, Lindseys popular hero, the psychologically complex homicide Stuart Haydon, returns in his fifth a novel, a story of moral convolution in which he investigates the disappearance of a young American woman in the murky underworld of Guatemala When Lena Muller, daughter of a wealthy Houston businessman, disappears in Central America, her father, convinced she has been murdered, hires private detective Jim Fossler to investigate. Six months later Haydon receives an urgent call from Fossler an old friend from Guatemala City. Fossler has found Lena, but believes she is in serious trouble; sounding quite shaken, he asks Haydon to fly down to help him clear up the situation. Haydon complies, and upon arriving in Guatemala is immediately drawn into the countrys surreal and violent netherworld, where a small group of American expatriates are engaged in quasi-official intrigues that have entangled them with corrupt military officials and an elusive faction of Guatemalan guerrillas. The unforgettable cast of Lenas "friends," all desperately trying to locate her, include Bennett Pittner, the brilliant, jaded semi-alcoholic CIA head of station in Guatemala; Janet Pittner, his wealthy and dangerously impetuous ex-wife, a woman for whom deceit is second nature and a pleasure; Dr. Aris Grajeda, a young Guatemalan doctor who passionately fights both his countrys suffering and the corruption that causes it; and Taylor Cage, a shadowy "freelancer" in the intelligence trade, an undeniably arrogant, calculating, and charming man, as "possessing of true bravery as any man Haydon had ever met." As Haydon is drawn further into this maze of conspiracies, he soon realizes that Lena Muller is not the young woman either he or her parents thought her to be. And, much to his regret, he also learns that it is not only people who disappear in Guatemala often the border between reality and illusion vanishes as well. Body of Truth is a brilliant thriller: literate, haunting, and as impossible to put down as it is to forget.

The first photograph arrived at Stuart Haydons house on Monday, in an unmarked manila envelope. It was a black-and-white photograph of an oil painting, the painting, the portrait of a young man. Something about him was disturbingly familiar. It was not until Tuesday, when the next envelope arrived, that Haydon recognizedthis time from a photograph taken fifty years earlierthe youthful features of his own father. Wednesday and Thursday brought two more envelopes, and startling photographs of an exotically beautiful young woman.Haydon knew that Fridays photograph would be the most explicit of the serries, but he was unprepared for what he saw. It "hit him like a physical blow to his stomach, and he almost gasped, a convulsive wave of nausea rising from deep within him . . .." It was a photograph of Haydon himself, taken only two days before, marked with a felt-tip pen to show a bullets trajectory to Haydons head and an explosion.Thus begins the 4th Stuart Haydon which hurls the Houston Homicide Detective into the secret world of his deceased fathers tumultuous and romantic past. The novel alternates between Haydon, cooly hunting the man who stalks him, and the psychopathic stalker, deranged by the secrets of a past of which Haydon is unaware; and between the fast-growing boomtown Houston of the 1980s and the subtropical beauty of Mexico City.This time the crimes Haydon is compelled to confront and unravel are intricately intertwined with is own life. The past intrudes upon the present, and Haydon relearns an old lesson: that no individual can truly know or understand the heart and mind of another. The individual is inexplicable.

"Scenes of homicide, Haydon thought as he stood over the reposing body, were contradictory affairs. The minimal constants, by definition, never varied: a criminal death; a Cain, an Abel. The variables were infinite: time, space, and circumstance. It was not when or where or why men murdered that made homicide investigations a tedious business. It was the surety of it, the inevitability that during every single day that dawned man could be depended upon to prove again that even after thousands of years of progressing civilization, he was utterly incapable of controlling his earliest criminal impulse. In this one thing man was frighteningly consistent, and incorrigible."At the old abandoned Belgrano estate in a derelict section of the Latin barrio not far from the oil refineries and ship channel in Houstons east side, a neatly dressed dead man is found laying on his back in the wildly overgrown weeds behind the sagging wrought iron gates. In the very center of the mans lead colored forehead, just above his eyebrows, a single carpenters nail protruded from his forehead. There was no mess; it was very neatly done. One end of a tiny black string was tied to the nail, and to the other end of the string was tied a large red ant. The ant was trying to walk away from the string, and in doing so was clambering back and forth in a shallow arc across the dreaming gaze of the mans opened eyes.Thus opens the 3rd of five Stuart Haydon novels that plunges the wealthy, psychologically complex homicide detective into another encounter with the incomprehensible depths of human nature.When the volatile mix of Mexicos social turmoil and unstable politics erupts into out-of-control violence, its devastating effects spill over its northern border into Texas. A well-financed, right-wing group known as Los Tecos, brings its vigilante justice to the streets of 1980s Houston during its boomtown years, and Haydon quickly finds himself in the midst of a full-scale crusade of terror waged by a clandestine Mexican death squad.Tragically the cross-fire of Los Tecos murderous judgment claims the life of his longtime colleague and dear friend, and Haydon is swept into a smoky world of conspiracy and political assassination.Soon he is engaged in a mortal struggle with a death squad "executioner" who proves to be a formidable adversary with an intellect and conviction equal to Haydons. Sadly, real justice is hard to find in the mind spinning vortex of fanatical cruelty, and Haydon is tempted to give in to a dangerous paradox: to step outside the rule of law in order to enforce it.

"Nothing on earth can equal the sensation and excitement of violence. The energy it generates is like a fabulous heat from another sun, and the human race is attracted to it like the proverbial moth to the flame."Police detective Stuart Haydon returns in another suspenseful, psychologically-charged mystery, the 2nd volume of five in the Stuart Haydon series. Heat From Another Sun unravels a story of murder and corruption involving both the superrich and the desperately poor during Houstons boom years of the 1980s.When a motion-picture cameraman is found murdered in the darkroom of a Houston ad agency, Haydon begins an investigation that ultimately brings him face to face with the darkest side of human nature. Bit by bit, clue by clue, Haydon comes closer to what his mounting suspicions can only begin to imagine. As the case progresses, the story twists and coils its way from a luxurious mansion in the center of a posh estate, to the seamiest parts of the citys gritty ship channel where an abandoned warehouse gives up its gruesome secrets, astonishing evidence of appalling crimes. At the heart of all this is a reclusive business magnatea man as mercurial in his personal life as he is in his business dealings. Josef Roeg has enormous wealth and takes for granted the power that comes with it. Obsessed by a perverse passion, Roeg indulges every whim his appetite demands, and he will go to any lengths to satisfy it. He denies himself nothing, not even when his desires require everything of otherseven their lives.For Stuart Haydon the Roeg investigation is further complicated by the fact that Haydon himself has a secret about violence that he has never shared with anyone. He has hidden certain facts about his own psychological struggles with the mysteries of violence that directly affect why he continues to be a homicide detective. And why he continues to turn down the many promotions that the Houston Police Department has offered him over the years. His singular determination to confront his own complex potential for evil while he pursues the evil in others pulls him dangerously closer to the verge of his emotional breaking point.

A Cold Mind is set in Houston in the early 1980s when the city was known as the homicide capital of the nation. It was a period of boom years for the citys exploding growth and the head-spinning homicide rate was a reflection of those chaotic years.This is the first novel in a quintet of books featuring Stuart Haydon, a homicide detective like no other. Independently wealthy, and faithfully married to an architect he adores, he spends more time alone in his library than in after-hour bars with his fellow detectives. His best friend is his old, wine-slurping collie. Haydons attraction to his work as a homicide detective is psychological, and it isnt easy to explain. Which is part of the reason why he wont walk away from it. The novel begins when three of the most beautiful calls girls who circulate in Houstons exclusive haute monde die in bizarre, violent, but seemingly unrelated incidents, Haydon suspects they are separate pieces of the same deadly puzzle. Medical reports on the women indicate the presence of a bizarre, inexplicable element in their bodies, and Haydon launches an investigation that carries him from the shadowy wharves and warehouses of the citys back streets to the exotic world of Hostons wealthy Brazilian expatriate communitya closed society of extravagant living and well-guarded secrets.

Ella Barnes is a veteran war zone photojournalist who has seen way too much senseless violence. Quitting her harrowing assignment in Nigeria, she returns to her peaceful retreat in Austin. But her homecoming spirals into a nightmare when she discovers her husbands chronic infidelities, soon followed by his death in a hotel room. When the pathologist who conducts his autopsy covertly contacts Ella with disturbing revelations, and then mysteriously "commits suicide," Ella vows to uncover the truth behind their deaths and the double life Brady was living.Ellas investigating soon leads to Annalise Steiner who learned to scam and swindle from her deadbeat father. But unlike him, shes good at it. Now she makes millions as an underworld Dark Broker, and has recently moved into to a river-island home in Austin to begin the final stages of her biggest con.In a treacherous gambit of bribes and lies, she has stolen the anticounterfeiting algorithms of a major international pharmaceutical company for their soon-to-be released line of new medications. She sells the algorithms to a transnational drug trader, enabling him to infiltrate counterfeit pharmaceuticals into the legitimate global supply chain without risk of discovery. Even though Annalises price is high, the buyer knows its only a fraction of the fortune he can make with the stolen algorithms.But Annalise overreaches. Driven by greed, she sells the algorithms again, to a second international dealer. Neither man knows the other is involved. Each of them believes he has made an "exclusive" deal with Annalise.Meanwhile, Alan Shea, a former intelligence operative who has tracked Annalise for several years, finally catches up with her in Austin. Soon Ella and Alans paths cross, and they team up. Plunging into Annalises labyrinth of lies, they resort to deceptions of their own, pushing against time and risk to stop her scheme.But just as Annalises complex con spins toward its finale, it begins to unravel violently. At the same time Alan and Ellas fabrications reach a tipping point as well. Alan is almost killed, leaving Ella to pursue Annalise alone to the Cayman Islands. There, with careful planning and a lot of luck, Ella sets another trap for Annalise. But fate catches both women by surprise. When the end comes, nothing goes the way either of them had plannedor imagined.

Russell Pearce is an investigative journalist who decided to quit his newspaper job and work freelance. It hasnt gone well. The pressure of his failing freelance career is putting stresses on his marriage which is in deep trouble. Driving home one night from the lake district west of Austin where a key source has just imploded his last hope for his last viable story, Russ stops at a tourist overlook on the twisting Mission Drive, a scenic cliffside road high above the Colorado River and overlooking the historic Spanish Solito Mission and its small community. Suddenly the headlights of two speeding cars appear on the winding curves of the drive coming his way, their headlights panning wildly with each turn. As the two cars scream past him Russ watches in astonishment as they recklessly disappear around the next bendthen abruptly he hears screeching tires and the headlights of one of the cars swerve and lurch into the night sky and then down as the car plunges off the road and down the steep hillside as the other car flees.Stunned, Russ scrambles down to the wrecked car which had slammed into a huge tree, saving it from plummeting off the high cliff down to the river. Inside the crumpled car he finds a dying man. His face smashed horribly, he can barely talk as he fights to stay conscious. He begs Russ to give a message to a woman named Sharlene. The message is cryptic and fraught with urgency and menacing implications. The man dies without telling Russ the womans last name.In just a few short minutes Russ life changes dramatically and he finds himself inside a riddle in which he now has a critical role, though he doesnt know what it is or what its about. But as his journalistic instincts kick in, he also realizes that he is outside the riddle as well, and that he has stumbled upon the beginnings of a hell of a storyand an opportunity to turn around his career.With the help of his wife Maret, who postpones leaving him to help him regain his professional footing, the two uneasy partners peel apart the layers of a complex plot.It is the story of two intertwining elements: how a controlling and cruel tech company CEO contrives to steal his wifes lucrative inheritance, the company he runs; and the inextricable complexities of human relationships that no one can ever truly understand, or escape.

In London, Rome, and Parisworld capitals of art, glamour, and intriguethe fundamental equations of money and power never change. What is about to change is the life of one haunted ex-spy who has not quite come in from the cold.Behind Harry Strand is a career in American intelligence that he wants to forget and a wife, killed in an automobile accident, he cant stop mourning. Harry is an art dealer, the profession that he used as his cover during his years of spying.Then Mara Song enters his life, sharing the lap pool of an exclusive club where Harry swims alone every morning. For weeks they swim together, day after day, never speaking, never meeting, until she disappears. A month later Mara walks into his office with a business proposition: help her sell an extraordinary portfolio of drawings by modern masters. Harry cant resist the artor the woman.One night in Rome Harry walks into Maras home and finds her television is on, a videocassette visible in the VCR slot. When he pushes it in, he sees a nighttime surveillance tapeand with heart-wrenching horror, he witnesses his wifes final, terrifying moments before her death.The cold war may be over, but Harrys war has just begun.

Ross Marteau makes a very good living sculpting female nudes of rich and famous women. When a long-term relationship breaks up badly in Paris where he is finishing a commission, he retreats to his hometown, San Rafael, an artist colony in the Texas hill country. But here his newfound peace of mind is permanently, and profoundly, shattered. One day Ross is approached by Celeste Lacan, a newcomer to San Rafael. She asks him to take on a new commission, a sculpture of her younger sister, Leda, promising that the job will present artistic challenges unlike any he has encountered before. Though reluctant, Ross is intrigued: by Celeste herself and by a photo of Leda that shows her to be a genuine beauty. When Ross finally meets Leda, he is stunned to discover that her body is as startlingly unique as her face is beautiful. Just as Celeste predicted, he becomes consumed with portraying the duality of her bodyand, perhaps, her soul. Soon Ross is romantically involved with Celeste, but his relationship with Leda is tense and complex. As he begins sculpting Leda, he finds that she is alternately seductive and mystifying, while at the same time Celeste curiously begins to withdraw. Then a violent murder draws Ross deeper into their world. He learns too late that his bond with these two women is older, darkerand more explosivethan he could ever have imagined.

As a newspaper reporter in San Antonio, Martin Gallaghers life has been predictable and mundane. But his routine existence suddenly explodes when his half sister Stella reveals that she is the secret leader of a Mexican revolutionary movement, and she desperately needs his help. Stella begs Martin to take a briefcase of secret documents to a certain destination in Mexico. Martins loyalty to his sister overrides his better judgment: he agrees to make the delivery.Plunged into a maelstrom of revolutionary conspiracies, Martin is soon on the run, scrambling across the border as he tries to out-maneuver competing intelligence agencies and shadowy figures who seem to have no loyalties at all. Just when he thinks he is safe, Martin discovers he is being stalked by a brutal and clever assassin known as Tony Sleep. Martin knows he wont be able to survive alone. Unfortunately, Stella may be the only one he can turn toand shes in no position to help.

The body of Arthur Tisler, an investigator in the Houston Police Departments Intelligence Division, is found in his parked car with a bullet in his head. The death is both shocking and alarming for Marcus Graver, head of the Intelligence Division. If Tisler died by his own hand, it was tragic, but the case could quickly and quietly be closed. However, if his death was in any way related to Tislers secret investigations as an intelligence officer it could have potentially disastrous results for the entire police department. Unfortunately, new evidence quickly comes to light that suggests Tisler may have been part of a group of rogue intelligence officers deeply embedded inside the Division. Realizing the explosive possibilities of this discovery, Graver knows he cant investigate Tislers death solely from inside the Intelligence Division. There had to be another, impartial perspective from the outside. Secretly, he reaches out to an old friend, Arnette Kepner, an intelligence freelancer who had spent most of her career in the Far East for the CIA. Arnette agrees to help Graver and soon her independent surveillance team uncovers a source that leads to Panos Kalatis, a former legendary deep-cover agent for the Israeli Mossad who has also become a freelancer. But unlike Arnette, Kalatis is now on the shadow side of the law. He is deep into the darkness of international crime, and is now one of the worlds wealthiestand most viciouscriminals. When Arnette realizes who Graver is up against she tells him he is way out of his league. In fact, the entire Houston Police Department is out if its league. Even so, she agrees to continue working with himoutside official channels. As Graver and his team dig deeper for answers, a dark cloud of uncertainty grows over the entire investigation and everyone begins to suspect everyone else. The truth seems ever more elusive and farther from their grasp as their complex investigation becomes a maze of mirrors and takes them into the very core of a vast criminal intelligence network. They plunge into the terrifying world of global high-tech crime, where brutal men of limitless power and riches operate like autonomous nations, trading billions of dollars worth of drugs and weapons in an arena without borders, without laws, and without fear.

Irina Ismaylova kills people . But she doesnt kill for pleasure, or money, or to save her own life. She kills at the behest of Sergei Krupatin, a Russian crime lord who exerts a shadowy, heartless hold over her. Desperate to escape his madness, Irina has no choice but to believe his promise to free her . . . after one last mission for him. But she soon learns her odds of surviving her new assignment seem improbable.FBI Special Agent Cate Cuevas has just learned of a devastating personal betrayal by her recently slain husband. Crushed and shaken, she jumps at the chance to divert her misery by accepting the most challenging and dangerous undercover assignment of her career.The leaders of three great international crime organizations are planning a secret meeting in Houston. The implications are stunning. The FBIs only chance to stop this ominous alliance depends upon Cate being able to infiltrate the Russian contingent. And her odds of surviving are nearly as bleak as Irinas. And ironically, Irina is her target.But when Cate and Irina meet, each playing her clandestine role and maneuvering through layers of lies and deceptions toward their objectives, they discover a mutual and powerful empathy for each other.As the two women fight to survive amidst the elaborate and cunning stratagems of violent men who are using them, their relationship becomes an ever-more-intricate dance of the heart, and neither woman foresees the consequences. Only one of them survives. But they remain forever united through the life of a little girl.