LUST: The 1st Deadly Sin

by A.L. Cross

She fell asleep alone. She woke up with a box on her nightstand.

Black obsidian. No seam, no hinge, no way in. Inside: a white rose cut within hours, a silk stocking belonging to the woman Eve loved and buried, and an antique View-Master loaded with footage from a stranger's bedroom.

The card is signed The Confesser.

Eve Sterling was the sharpest investigative journalist in Manhattan until a leaked photograph made her the story instead. Now she has seventy-two hours to save a woman she has only ever seen through a hidden lens, and one phone number she swore she'd never dial again.

Detective Maddox Black hasn't heard her voice since the night she left her key on his counter and vanished. He's the only person in the city who will believe her. He's also the only one who can still undo her without touching her.

The killer isn't hunting. He's teaching. Seven sins, seven confessions, and Eve's name is written on the first lesson.

7 Deadly Sins is a seven-book serial and must be read in order. Each novella resolves its own case. The conspiracy, and the romance between Eve and Maddox, build across all seven and land in Book Seven.

Kindle Edition

Expected publication January 31, 2027

About the author

Deep Shadows. Relentless Danger. Dark Romance.

STUDIO BURIES THE FOOTAGE. THE FOOTAGE DOESN'T STAY BURIED.
SENATOR'S HUSBAND HIRES CRIMINAL COUNSEL. SENATOR SAYS IT'S NOTHING.

You read them. Everybody read them. Nobody printed what actually happened.

A.L. Cross writes dark romantic suspense from inside the rooms. Los Angeles. London. Georgetown. Macau. A Nob Hill hotel that's kept a century of secrets. Private jets, brokered marriages, careers that end in a single phone call. Men and women worshipped by millions and known by no one. Everything they are is a flawless performance, until the cameras stop flashing and the masks slip.

Not every story starts on a red carpet. Some start in a safe house, where the conspiracy runs deeper than the government that built it. The address changes. The tone never does. Ambition is a blood sport, danger wears a bespoke suit, and his anti-heroes don't want justice. They want the one person they were never supposed to touch, and they'll burn the world to ash to keep them.

The romance runs hot and nothing fades to black. Every book brings its own crime, its own couple (MM, MF, MMM, MFM), and its own ending. They get out alive and they get each other. HEA or HFN, always. No cliffhangers. No filler. No waiting three releases for a resolution.

Ready to find your new obsession? Fair warning: once you enter his world, you may never want to leave. But you wouldn't want to.