ABOUT THIS BOOK

On a frigid December night, Karen sits at the edge of Philadelphia’s Schuylkill River, dressed in a flowing gown, like a visitor from the distant past. A beautiful and shining young woman, she gazes up at a bone-white winter moon like a fairy-tale princess frozen in time. At first glance, one might not even notice that she is dead, coated in a glistening patina of ice.

Homicide cops Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano take the lead on the case, uncovering a plethora of eerie clues–each more warped and spine-chilling than the last. Yet the identity of Karen’s pitiless killer remains a mystery. Then the next victim is found upriver at an abandoned waterworks, posed with an unlikely object in her clasped hands. Struggling to link the victims and make sense of the madman’s agenda, Byrne and Balzano follow his twisted trail, which stretches into a past of dark crimes forgotten by all but a few.

Now the past roars back into the present with a vengeance as the ingenious killer unleashes a torrent of rage upon the streets of Philadelphia. As Byrne and Balzano sift through suspects and clues, they unearth a shocking secret history: a legacy of malevolence and cold-blooded retribution dating back twenty years. And the farther they make their way up the body-strewn banks of the Schuylkill River, the closer they get to a villain from their worst nightmare, an evil as patient as it is merciless.

Lightning fast and razor sharp, this jolting thriller from acclaimed author Richard Montanari coils back in time to deliver a fiendish mystery, a shattering revelation, and one hell of a wild ride. Lock your doors and turn up the lights. Montanari’s terrifying bedtime story will keep you up all night.

The Rosary Girls

Şubat 2006

Rights sold to: Dutch (Bruna); Japanese (Shueisha); Swedish (Norstedts); Greek (Harlenic Hellas); Italian (Nord); Chinese (simplified) (North Literature & Art); Polish (Sonia Draga); Bahasa Indonesia (Pustaka Zahra); Portuguese (Portugal only- Presenca).

ABOUT THIS BOOK

In his sleek, visceral novels Deviant Way, Kiss of Evil, and The Violet Hour, Richard Montanari slammed into the suspense field like a force of nature. Now Montanari has written an astounding novel that pits two besieged detectives against a fiercely intelligent serial killer.

Sprawling beneath the statue of William Penn, Philadelphia is a city of downtrodden crack houses and upscale brownstones. Somewhere in this concrete crazy quilt, one teenage Catholic girl is writing in her diary, another is pouring her heart out to a friend, and yet another is praying. And somewhere in this city is a man who wants these young women to make his macabre fantasy become reality. In a passion play of his own, he will take the girls–and a whole city–over the edge.

Kevin Byrne is a veteran cop who already knows that edge: He’s been living on it far too long. His marriage failing, his former partner wasting away in a hospital, and his heart lost to mad fury, Byrne loves to take risks and is breaking every rule in the book. And now he has been given a rookie partner. Jessica Balzano, the daughter of a famous Philly cop, doesn’t want Byrne’s help. But they will need each other desperately, since they’ve just caught the case of a lifetime: Someone is killing devout young women, bolting their hands together in prayer, and committing an abomination upon their otherwise perfect bodies.

Byrne and Balzano spearhead the hunt for the serial killer, who leads them on a methodically planned journey. Suspects appear before them like bad dreams–and vanish just as quickly. And while Byrne’s sins begin to catch up with him, and Balzano tries to solve the blood-splattered puzzle, the body count rises. Meanwhile, the calendar is approaching Easter and the day of the resurrection. When the last rosary is counted, a madman’s methods will be revealed, and the final crime will be the one that hurts the most.

Relentlessly paced and vividly told, The Rosary Girls is a smart, emotionally complex, fiercely gripping thriller from an author who takes chances, breaks new ground, and leaves readers haunted and moved long after the last page is turned.

Praise for Richard Montanari

The Skin Gods

"It would be appropriate to call Richard Montanari's books "mystery-thriller noir" except for one thing: The deep black noir is splattered with gallons of bright red blood . . .[The Skin Gods] is a page turner . . . If you enjoy pop-literary walks on the wild side, this is the summer beach book for you." - The Philadelphia Inquirer

“What makes The Skin Gods engrossing isn’t just the sustained suspense

but the adept rendering of the characters.”

—Rocky Mountain News

"This page-turning novel is relentlessly suspenseful and creepy."

—The Tucson Citizen

"Author Richard Montanari knows police work and procedures. And he tells a skillful story. Pour yourself a shot of bottom-shelf whiskey and settle in for a neat noir novel. It gives a whole new meaning to the terms serial killer and cliffhanger."

—Charleston Post & Courier

"A follow-up to last year's The Rosary Girls, Montanari manages to kick the suspense up another electrifying notch . . . at this rate, we can only expect the next to be even better, and eagerly await to see where this inventive author takes us."

—New Mystery Reader

“Perfect for anyone who enjoys a well-crafted thriller . . . bestselling Montanari

has another hit on his hands.”

—Booklist

The Rosary Girls

"If Gustav Mahler had been a novelist instead of a composer, he might

have written something like The Rosary Girls . . . Montanari is very good at getting you to think you're one step ahead of the cops. Don't flatter yourself.

It's highly unlikely you'll come close to figuring out whodunit in

The Rosary Girls before anybody in the book does."

- The Philadelphia Inquirer (Editor's Choice)

"The star here is the thriller of a plot . . . Byrne and Balzano have great chemistry, and Montanari looks like he's come up with a winner."

—Bloomberg News

"Welcome to the Gothic world of Richard Montanari . . . a dark thriller of impeccable suspense."

—L'Express (France)

"Catholicism.  This dark, bloody page turner's soaking in it . . . a grisly, baroque and provocative tale of murder and belief."

—Mystery Scene Magazine

“Readers of this terrifying page-turner are in the hands of a master storyteller.

Be prepared to stay up all night.”

—James Ellroy

"With intriguing, flawed characters and a warped antagonist who leaves mutilated bloody corpses, Montanari is in fine form for those who enjoy being in Hannibal Lecter territory."

- Lansing (Michigan) State Journal

“Gripping . . . You begin The Rosary Girls out of curiosity but finish it out of compulsion.”

—Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Montanari has written an intense, graphic book about revenge and the battle between good and evil, and how even the good can lose their souls."

—Mystery International

“A relentlessly suspenseful, soul-chilling thriller that hooks you instantly.”

—Tess Gerritsen

About the Author

Richard Montanari is the award-winning author of five novels of suspense: Deviant Way, The Violet Hour, Kiss of Evil, The Rosary Girls, The Skin Gods, and Merciless.  In 1996 he received the OLMA for Best First Mystery.

In addition, Richard’s profiles, essays, short fiction, and both film and literary criticism have appeared in scores of publications, including The Chicago Tribune, The Detroit Free Press, The Plain Dealer, The Seattle Times, Northern Ohio Live, Cleveland Magazine, and many others.

In August 2007 Ballantine Books will publish merciless as a lead hardcover title in the U.S.  Foreign rights have already been sold to the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain and France with more on the way.

MERCILESS is also a featured alternate in Mystery Guild, Book of the Month Club, Literary Guild, and Doubleday and book clubs. 

Richard is currently working on the fourth novel in his Philadelphia crime series, scheduled for publication by Ballantine Books in 2008.

For excerpts, reviews, multimedia galleries, contests, tour schedules, and more, please visit Richard Montanari’s official website at: www.richardmontanari.com.