The Shadow’s work is never done.

  EPILOGUE

  THE NEXT MORNING, Dan Rickter strokes his mottled gray beard as he motors slowly down the Hudson. He’s relieved to have his high-powered speedboat back. A kayaker found it floating mid-river about ten miles north. There’s no obvious damage, but Rickter is going easy until he can have his guy at the marina check things out.

  As he purrs along the shoreline, he spots a piece of smooth driftwood floating about twenty feet out. He angles to avoid it. As he passes by, something makes him turn and look again. What the hell…?

  Rickter cranks the wheel around, then shuts the engines down. As the boat drifts past the object, he peers over the stern and recoils.

  He’s staring at a dead man’s back.

  Rickter scans the river for help. Nobody in sight. He reaches out and pokes the body with his finger. It bobs lightly. Below the waterline, he can make out dangling gold pantlegs and a head with long, jet-black hair.

  Stomach turning, he grabs a length of line and loops it around the torso. He grits his teeth and hauls the corpse aboard. The dead man flops onto the deck, faceup, eyes open and blank. The left side of his skull is caved in. A string of green weeds is wrapped around his bare muscular chest.

  Rickter leans forward. Suddenly, he feels a blast inside his head, so sharp it makes his knees buckle. In his mind, he sees the same man—powerfully alive—dressed in a gold robe and surrounded by bolts of lightning. His eyes are flashing, his long black hair whipping in the wind, his name echoing like the howl of a hurricane.

  Khaaaan!

  Rickter stumbles back in shock, blinking as his vision clears. Suddenly, the corpse’s gut begins to bulge, like it’s boiling inside. Rickter is thrown against the steering wheel. He hears a sound like ripping canvas and sees the man’s belly split open from ribs to waist.

  He watches, trembling, as nine fat eels slither out of the cavity, leaving a trail of blood and mucous on the deck. They wriggle on the cockpit floor like snakes, two feet long and thick as the corpse’s forearm, with gaping jaws and razor teeth.

  Rickter kicks frantically. One of his shoes flies off. An eel wraps around his bare ankle like a wet fist. As he tries to twist away, he slips and lands on the slime-covered deck. In a second, the eels are on him, working their way into the legs of his shorts and up to his throat, digging in with sharp teeth—draining the life right out of him.

  Rickter’s shrieks are loud and horrible, but they don’t last long.

  Their work complete, the creatures slither overboard and move in relentless undulations toward Manhattan, like nerves of a single brain.

  Khaaaan!

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  ABOUT THE AUTHORS

  James Patterson is the world’s bestselling author and most trusted storyteller. He has created many enduring fictional characters and series, including Alex Cross, the Women’s Murder Club, Michael Bennett, Maximum Ride, Middle School, and I Funny. Among his notable literary collaborations are The President Is Missing, with President Bill Clinton, and the Max Einstein series, produced in partnership with the Albert Einstein Estate. Patterson’s writing career is characterized by a single mission: to prove that there is no such thing as a person who “doesn’t like to read,” only people who haven’t found the right book. He’s given over three million books to schoolkids and the military, donated more than seventy million dollars to support education, and endowed over five thousand college scholarships for teachers. For his prodigious imagination and championship of literacy in America, Patterson was awarded the 2019 National Humanities Medal. The National Book Foundation presented him with the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community, and he is also the recipient of an Edgar Award and nine Emmy Awards. He lives in Florida with his family.

  Brian Sitts is an award-winning advertising creative director and television writer. He has collaborated with James Patterson on books for adults and children. He and his wife, Jody, live in Peekskill, New York.

  THE SHADOW

  Only two people know that 1930s society man Lamont Cranston has a secret identity as the Shadow, a crusader for justice—well, make that three if you include me, and it is my great honor to reimagine his story. But the other two are his greatest love, Margo Lane, and his fiercest enemy, Shiwan Khan. When Khan ambushes the couple, they must risk everything for the slimmest chance of survival… in the future.

  A century and a half later, Lamont awakens in a world both unknown and disturbingly familiar. Most disturbing, Khan’s power continues to be felt over the city and its people. No one in this new world understands the dangers of stopping him better than Lamont Cranston. And only the Shadow knows that he’s the one person who might succeed before more innocent lives are lost.

  THE PERFECT ASSASSIN

  They never tell you how savage academic work really is. So, when Dr. Brandt Savage is on sabbatical from the University of Chicago he finds himself surprisingly enrolled in a school where he is the sole pupil. His professor, “Meed,” is demanding. She’s also his captor.

  Savage emerges from their intensive training sessions physically and mentally transformed, but with no idea why he’s been chosen. Then his first mission with Meed takes them back to her training ground, where Savage learns how deeply entwined their two lives have been. To prevent a new class of killers from escaping this harsh place where their ancestors first fought to make a better world, they must pledge anew: Do right to all, and wrong to no one.

  DEATH OF THE BLACK WIDOW

  A twenty-year-old woman murders her kidnapper with a competence so impeccable that Detroit PD Officer Walter O’Brien is taken aback. It’s pretty rare for my detectives to be this shocked. But what Officer O’Brien doesn’t know is that this young woman has a knack for ending the lives of her lovers—and getting away with it.

  Time after time, she navigates her way out of police custody. Soon Walter becomes fixated on uncovering the truth. And when he discovers that he’s not alone in his search, one thing is certain. This deadly string of secrets didn’t begin in his home city… but he’s going to make sure it ends there.

  THE PRESIDENT’S DAUGHTER

  All presidents have nightmares. This one is about to come true.

  Matthew Keating, a onetime Navy SEAL—and a past president—has always defended his family as staunchly as he has his country. Now those defenses are under attack.

  A madman abducts Keating’s teenage daughter, Melanie—turning every parent’s deepest fear into a matter of national security. As the world watches in real time, Keating embarks on a one-man special-ops mission that tests his strengths: as a leader, warrior, and father.

  THE FIRST LADY

  The US government is at the forefront of everyone’s mind these days and I’ve become fascinated by the idea that one secret can bring it all down. What if that secret is a US president’s affair that results in a nightmarish outcome?

  Sally Grissom, leader of the Presidential Protection Division, is summoned to a private meeting with the president and his chief of staff to discuss the disappearance of the first lady. What at first seemed an escape to a safe haven turns into a kidnapping when a ransom note arrives along with what could be the first lady’s finger.

  It’s a race against the clock to collect the evidence that all leads to one troubling question: Could the kidnappers be from inside the White House?

  RAVES FOR

  JAMES PATTERSON

  “Patterson knows where our deepest fears are buried… There’s no stopping his imagination.”

  —New York Times Book Review

  “James Patterson writes his thrillers as if he were building roller coasters.”

  —Associated Press

  “No one gets this big without natural storytelling talent—which is what James Patterson has, in spades.”

  —Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Jack Reacher series

  “James Patterson knows how to sell thrills and suspense in clear, unwavering prose.”

  —People

  “Patterson boils a scene down to a single, telling detail, the element that defines a character or moves a plot along. It’s what fires off the movie projector in the reader’s mind.”

  —Michael Connelly

  “James Patterson is the boss. End of.”

  —Ian Rankin, New York Times bestselling author of the Inspector Rebus series

  “James Patterson is the gold standard by which all others are judged.”

  —Steve Berry, #1 bestselling author of the Colton Malone series

  “The prolific Patterson seems unstoppable.”

  —USA Today

  “Patterson is in a class by himself.”

  —Vanity Fair

 

 

  James Patterson, Circle of Death

 

 

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