Double Take
An FBI Thriller
Putnam
June 12, 2007
ISBN-13: 0399154248
Available in: Hardcover
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Double Take
by Catherine Coulter
It's been more than six months since her husband's brutal death, and Julia Ransom is just beginning to breathe again. She loved her husband, renowned psychic August Ransom, but the media frenzy that followed his murder sapped what little strength she had left. Now, after dinner with friends, strolling along San Francisco's Pier 39, she realizes that she's happy. Standing at the railing, she savors the sounds around her—tourists, seals on a barge—and for a moment enjoys the sheer normalcy of it all. And then it comes to an end.
Out of nowhere she's approached by a respectable-looking man who distracts her with conversation before violently attacking her and throwing her over the railing. If it hadn't been for Special Agent Cheney Stone, out to stretch his legs between courses at a local restaurant, Julia would have vanished into the bay's murky depths. Not only does he save her from a watery grave, but he senses a connection between her assault and her husband's death, and sets out to serve as her protector while reopening August Ransom's murder investigation.
Meanwhile, in Maestro, Virginia, Sheriff Dixon Noble—last seen in Point Blank—still mourns his wife, Christie, who vanished three years earlier. His life, too, is just getting back to normal when he learns of a San Francisco woman named Charlotte Pallack, whose shocking resemblance to Christie sends Dix across the country. Though he knows in his heart that she can't possibly be his wife, Dix is compelled to see her with his own eyes. Once in San Francisco, Dix and Cheney's paths inevitably cross. With the help of agents Dillon Savich and Lacey Sherlock, whose San Francisco connections prove essential in unlocking the mystery behind Charlotte Pallack's identity as well as the forces behind Julia Ransom's attempted murder, Sheriff Noble and Agent Stone push deep into a complex world of psychics and poseurs. As the stakes and the body count rise, Savich, Sherlock, Dix, and Cheney fight for answers—and their lives.
Other Books by Catherine Coulter
Catherine Coulter's Bio
Catherine Coulter is the author of 65 novels, including 59 New York Times bestsellers. She earned her reputation writing historical romances. Over a decade ago she added suspense thrillers to her repertoire—with great success. The Cove, the first book in her bestselling "FBI Suspense Thriller Series" spent nine weeks on the New York Times list and has to date sold almost 2 million copies. The Maze, which was reviewed in Publisher’s Weekly as "gripping enough to establish Coulter firmly in this genre," was Coulter’s first book to land on the Times hardcover bestsellers list. Since then, she has lived up to that promise with ten additional back-to-back bestselling FBI thrillers, including The Target, The Edge, Riptide, Hemlock Bay, Eleventh Hour, Blindside, Blowout, Point Blank, Double Take, Tailspin, Knockout, and two omnibus editions: The Beginning and Double Jeopardy.
Coulter’s first novel, The Autumn Countess, was published at the end of 1978. She chose a Regency romance for her debut because, says Coulter, "as any published author will tell you, it’s best to limit the unknowns in a first book, and not only had I grown up reading Georgette Heyer, but I earned my M.A. degree in 19th century European History." Following The Autumn Countess, Coulter wrote six more Regency romances. In 1982 she published her first long historical, Devil’s Embrace. She has continued to write long historicals, interspersing them with hardcover contemporary novels, beginning with False Pretenses in 1988.
Coulter lives with her physician husband in Marin County, California. She grew up in a horse ranch in Texas. She graduated from the University of Texas and received her graduate degree at Boston College. Prior to becoming a full-time writer, she worked on Wall Street as a speech writer. Catherine loves to travel and ski, reads voraciously, and has a reputation for telling jokes, believing the publishing business is too crazy not to laugh.