Jeffery Deaver loves writing short stories. 'All bets are off,' he says. 'Short stories are like a sniper's bullet. Fast and shocking. I can make good bad and bad badder, and most fun of all, really bad seem good.'

And that is exactly what he does in these seventeen superb short stories. In 'Beautiful' former supermodel Kari's stalker has followed her through retirement to her new small town home. The police can do nothing. The only thing that will end the nightmare is the stalker's death or her own. In the Edgar-nominated 'Triangle' Pete finds a true crime book - and uses the lessons contained therein to kill Mo's lover. The award-winning 'Without Jonathan' introduces us to Marissa, about to go on the first date of her life since she married Jonathan, with a man she met over the Internet. As she wonders whether she will ever truly fall in love again, the man she is about to meet is killing a housewife in another part of town...

And in the brand-new The Christmas Present, we see a side of Lincoln Rhyme we've never met before.

This is collection of short stories that is instantly gripping and impossible to put down, taking your breath away time and time again. Nothing is as it seems in the twisted world of Jeffery Deaver.