From Nora Roberts, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Villa and Carolina Moon, comes a classic tale — a searing novel of twisted passion and lethal cunning, available in hardcover for the first time.

Superstar mystery novelist Grace McCabe needs to unwind after a grueling book tour, and visiting her sister, whom she hasn't seen in months, seems the perfect solution. But Grace is surprised to find the fastidious Kathleen living in a grungy Washington, D.C., neighborhood. Kathleen, reeling from a bitter divorce and the loss of her son, is saving every penny of her teacher's salary to hire a hotshot lawyer for a custody battle.

Then Grace discovers that Kathleen is boosting her income with an unlikely profession: as an at-home phone-sex operator. Known as Desiree to the clients of Fantasy, Inc., Kathleen is living life on the edge. Yet how dangerous could it really be? With the ironclad anonymity the agency guarantees its employees, could anyone ever track her down?

Grace finds out one cherry-blossom-scented night when she comes home to find her sister dead, strangled with the cord of her "special" phone. Suddenly Grace's life turns into a scene from one of her own books — the horror, the tight-lipped police, the shattered survivor. Only this time the survivor is Grace herself.

But she isn't waiting around for the police to catch up with the killer. Instead she creates a daring trap to lure the killer to her. Her plan goes against every coolheaded instinct of Detective Ed Jackson, the lead investigator on the case. He's read all of Grace's books and might have been the perfect consultant for the one she's working on, though in this real-life murder, she's the last complication he needs.

He's determined to keep Grace out of harm's way, but it's too late. Her trap has already worked. She has aroused the attention of a brilliant madman, and now nothing may be able to protect her from the murderous lust that drives this killer down a path of ecstasy laced with death.


From the Hardcover edition.

Although some readers would consider this story dated, I really enjoyed this novel by Nora Roberts. Grace, a crime writer, has decided to take some time off of her tour to visit her sister, Kathleen. Reeling from a recent divorce, Kathleen a teacher by day, and a phone sex operator by night, has become the obsession of a stalker. Grace comes home one night to find her sister raped and murdered. Partnered with her love interest, Detective Ed Jackson, Grace soon discovers that solving crime isn't as easy as it appears in her crime novels. With a few twists and turns, the story comes to a Nora-ish ending that leaves the reader satisfied.

I just finished both Sacred Sins and Brazen Virtue, its sequel. I'm not sure which book I liked best. I thought they were both well written and good reads. I realize these are older books but hate it that Nora Roberts has her characters smoke so much. YUK! I wasn't sure the police would allow the women from both stories to put themselves in harm way to catch a serial killer. Okay it's fiction. Also I thought where there were serial killings the FBI is usually brought in but the local police force was handling it all. I liked both Ben and Ed. I didn't like Grace or Tess as much. I felt both characters always tried to upstage the men in the stories I'm all for independent women and etc but felt like it was over done. Here you have all these professional law enforcement and in both cases, the female lead in the story brings down the killer? Okay, whatever! I would also have liked a little more to the endings of the stories. Ben and Tess's story moves on into Brazen Virtue but Ed and Grace's story just ends as soon as the killer is bought down. I would have liked another chapter or epilogue wrapping things up better. Even though there were some things I didn't like about both books, they were still good reads.

Just like the rest of Nora Robert's books she has found a way to bring her stories to life. I have never read a Nora Robert's book that I did not like.

I loved this book because it involved murder, mystery and sex. My favorite. It has a lot of suspence which makes it unable to put down. I am a big Roberts fan, so I enjoy pretty much anything she writes. This is one of the very good ones. You will enjoy.

While not quite as catching as Sacred Sins, this book was a pretty entertaining read. Being a romance buff, it was kind of hard to get into the idea of a big, mountain type man with red hair and a red beard being the hero but it was fun to see Ben come back with Tess and he was just as witty as ever. However, Grace and Ed made an fun enough couple, the storyline was interesting but like Sacred Sins, the ending didn't have any bang. Definitely worth a read, especially if you enjoyed the first one.