Brazen Virtue - D.C. Detectives Revised edition

From New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts comes a novel that explores the dangerous side of desire, when a mystery writer in search of a little peace and quiet instead finds herself ensnared in the world of a real-life serial killer whose craving for murder stops at nothing . . . and no one.
 
After a demanding book tour, superstar mystery novelist Grace McCabe decides to visit her sister, Kathleen, who?s embroiled in a custody battle after a bitter divorce. Arriving in D. C., Grace is shocked to find Kathleen living in a run-down neighborhood and, hoping to afford a hotshot lawyer, supplementing her meager teacher?s salary by moonlighting as a phone sex operator.

According to Kathleen, Fantasy, Inc., guarantees its employees ironclad anonymity. But Grace has her doubts?which are confirmed one horrifying cherry-blossom-scented night when one of Fantasy, Inc.?s operators is murdered. As Grace is drawn to help solve the crime, her life turns into a scene from one of her own books. Yet as one of her biggest fans, investigator Ed Jackson, warns her: This isn?t fiction. Real people die?and Grace could be next. For she?s hoping to trap a killer more twisted than anything she could imagine. And not even Ed may be able to protect her from a rendezvous with lust and death.