Lita Mendez was a thorn in the LAPD’s side. An aggressive police critic and gang activist, she’d filed countless complaints against the department. So when she’s found dead in her home, Shane and Hitch fear the worst: that there’s a killer in their ranks.Outside the crime scene, Nixon Nash, the charismatic host of a hit reality show called Vigilante TV, has set up shop with his television crew. Nash’s show is dedicated to beating the cops at their own game, solving murders before they can. Now he has the murder of Lita Mendez in his sights and he presents the detectives with a choice: either join his team or prepare for a public takedown.But Scully suspects that Nash isn’t the folk hero he seems. If a detective got in his way, just how far would the TV host go in the name of self-promotion? On the heels of The Prostitutes’ Ball, called “the best Scully yet” (Kirkus Reviews) and “perfectly fresh” (Booklist), this new novel from the celebrated author has Detective Scully risking everything to save himself, his family, and the job he loves.Praise for Stephen J. Cannell“A master storyteller.” ―Michael Connelly“A great storyteller who keeps you nailed to the page.” ―Ted Bell“Cannell is the gold in crime fiction.” ―Stephen Coonts

Megan is a suburban soccer mom who once upon a time walked on the wild side. Now she’s got two kids, a perfect husband, a picket fence, and a growing sense of dissatisfaction. Ray used to be a talented documentary photographer, but at the age of forty he finds himself in a dead-end job posing as a paparazzo, pandering to celebrity-obsessed rich kids. Broome is a detective who can’t let go of a cold case—a local husband and father who disappeared seventeen years ago—and spends the anniversary every year visiting a house frozen in time, the missing man’s family still waiting, his slippers left by the recliner as if he might show up at any moment to step into them.Three people living lives they never wanted, hiding secrets that even those closest to them would never suspect, will find that the past never truly fades away. Even as the terrible consequences of long-ago events crash together in the present and threaten to ruin lives, they will come to the startling realization that they may not want to forget the past at all. And as each confronts the dark side of the American dream—the boredom of a nice suburban life, the excitement of temptation, the desperation and hunger that can lurk behind even the prettiest façades—they will discover the hard truth that the line between one kind of life and another can be as whisper-thin as a heartbeat.Master of domestic suspense Harlan Coben delivers his trademark combination of page-turning thrills and unrivaled insight into the dark shadows that creep into even the happiest communities.Praise for the narration of Stay Close by Harlan Coben, performed by Scott Brick:“Scott Brick crafts characters not so much by shaping each individual voice with different accents but by expressions and tones that convey strong emotions. And the emotions are far ranging. Empathy, psychotic behavior, and frantic helplessness all figure into the narration as much as the plot. It’s a diverse group tied to the crimes: a crooked cop haunted by his conscience, two young psychopathic killers without remorse, old lovers who are trying to escape their past and confront their present. Brick’s narration is crucial as the solution is unearthed.” © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

It’s a few days before Christmas when Detective Shane Scully and his wife, Alexa, respond to a call in the Hollywood Hills. The crime scene is the pristine backyard swimming pool of a once immaculate mansion on Skyline Drive, the site of an infamous murder decades prior, in which a family was killed in cold blood on Christmas Eve. In the ensuing years, the house has been shuttered and left exactly as it stood on that terrible night. Shane and Alexa arrive to discover the aftermath of a lavish party. The revelers have fled, leaving three dead bodies, all shot with the same gun. One is acclaimed film producer Scott Berman. The others, a pair of gorgeous women in their early twenties. Scully is assigned to the case along with his new partner, Sumner Hitchens. Hitch has a reputation in the department as a self-promoter; he sold the story rights to one of his cases to a film production company — and he has the millions to show for it. Scully and Hitch begin to investigate, and the case looks to be open-and-shut: The two young women were hired prostitutes, and there’s a security video of an angry husband firing on all three. A simple case of revenge. But there’s a catch: The detectives discover a single spent bullet casing that doesn’t match the rest. From that single bullet emerges a story that spans thirty years — a tale of love, murder, suicide, and one of the biggest financial frauds in L.A. history. It’s a story fit for the screen — and Hitch is determined to get it there, no matter what it takes. But someone has gone to great lengths to cover up the crime, and as Scully and Hitch get closer to the answer, they find themselves in a killer’s crosshairs. The case could be the makings of a blockbuster Hollywood film — but only if Scully gets out of it alive.

Abandoned by his parents as an infant and shunted from one foster family to another, Shane was ultimately raised in an orphanage called Huntington House. The only positive thing in his young life was the attention of the home’s director, Walter “Pop” Dix. Pop, an avid surfer, would take a small group of kids for early morning surfing. He was big-hearted, patient, and the father none of them had ever had. That was thirty years ago, and Scully long ago put that difficult chapter of his life behind him. He is now an accomplished detective, married to Alexa, the gorgeous lieutenant and acting commander of the LAPD detective division. But Shane is forced to revisit the memories of his childhood when he learns that Pop has been found dead, the victim of an apparently self-inflicted shotgun blast. He has left a note asking six specific people, all of whom attended Huntington House, to be his pallbearers, and Shane is one of the chosen. He and his fellow pallbearers are convinced Pop would never have killed himself. That leaves murder. But why would anyone kill Pop? And who? Together, the pallbearers embark on a dangerous mission in pursuit of justice, and for retribution against the men responsible for Pop’s death. It takes them up against an unexpected adversary whose power and influence far exceed anything they could have imagined―violent, dangerous men who are determined to keep a lid on the secret behind Pop’s death, no matter who gets in their way.