GONE

　　No one conducts a more chilling, suspenseful, thoroughlyengrossing tour through the winding corridors of criminal behaviorand the secret chambers of psychopathology than Jonathan Kellerman,the bestselling “master of the psychological thriller” (People).Now the incomparable team of psychologist Alex Delaware andhomicide cop Milo Sturgis embark on their most dangerous excursionyet, into the dark places where risk runs high and blood runscold.　　It’s a story tailor-made for the nightly news: Dylan Meserve andMichaela Brand, young lovers and fellow acting students, vanish onthe way home from a rehearsal. Three days later, the two of themare found in the remote mountains of Malibu -battered and terrifiedafter a harrowing ordeal at the hands of a sadistic abductor.　　The details of the nightmarish event are shocking and brutal: Thecouple was carjacked at gunpoint by a masked assailant andsubjected to a horrific regimen of confinement, starvation andassault.　　But before long, doubts arise about the couple’s story, and asforensic details unfold, the abduction is exposed as a hoax.Charged as criminals themselves, the aspiring actors claimemotional problems, and the court orders psychological evaluationfor both.　　Michaela is examined by Alex Delaware, who finds that her claimsof depression and stress ring true enough. But they don’t explainher lies, and Alex is certain that there are hidden layers in thissordid psychodrama that even he hasn’t been able topenetrate.　　Nevertheless, the case is closed–only to be violently reopenedwhen Michaela is savagely murdered. When the police look for Dylan,they find that he’s gone. Is he the killer or a victim himself?Casting their dragnet into the murkiest corners of L.A., Delawareand Sturgis unearth more questions than answers–including a host ofeerily identical killings. What really happened to the couple whocried wolf? And what bizarre and brutal epidemic is infecting thecity with terror, madness, and sudden, twisted death?