SHARP FORCE TRAUMA: A Serial Killer Thriller

by Jon Osborne

An unhinged sixteen-year-old chess prodigy is on the loose and wreaking havoc on the general public with a machinegun after escaping from a youth-correctional facility in upstate New York. His ultimate target: Special Agent Dana Whitestone of the FBI, who he blames for the bloody death of his beloved mother at the hands of a pair of sadistic serial killers that she hadn't been able to stop. Jack Yuntz won't rest until he springs his final checkmate move on his hated quarry, preferably with a knife. A little bit of sharp force trauma to drive home the point that she's a miserable failure at her job who doesn't deserve to live anymore.

Dana, however, has nothing BUT resting on her mind after Jack Yuntz steals the one thing in the world that she'd wanted more than anything else: the opportunity to become a mother herself. Will Dana pull herself together in time to jump into the fray one last time and stop the heartless boy before he kills any more innocent people? Or will she simply choose to continue resting?

Forever, this time.

PRAISE FOR KILL ME ONCE

"Terrifying, suspenseful and genuinely original, Kill Me Once will chill you to the bone."—Karin Slaughter, bestselling author of Broken.

"I felt like I was being chased by an axe-murderer. If you like a hard edge that glitters and drips, you’ll enjoy Mr. Osborne’s first foray." -- Cody Mcfadyen, bestselling author of the "Smoky Barrett" series.

“The plot is pretty complicated and one that probably won’t be solved by guesswork by the reader. However, it is still very well written and Osborne seems very comfortable in his writing style and writes like a seasoned professional."—Crimesquad.com

PRAISE FOR A GAME OF CHANCE
"There's something quite disturbing about the sheer joy and lack of remorse the killers feel as they set up a series of situations which serve to bring an undesirable end to the victims, who seem to be either on the lower end of the social scale or severely flawed. Maybe it's Osborne's way of lessening the readers' empathy toward them, however both killers have their own agenda, which serves up an interesting twist at the end."—Lloyd Paige.

301 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 11, 2014

About the author

Jon Osborne has been a newspaper reporter for a decade, most recently for the Naples Daily News in Florida, where he covered everything from bake sales to triple murders. He is a veteran of the United States Navy. He is the author of KILL ME ONCE (2011) and the forthcoming A GAME OF CHANCE (2012).