What Lies Beneath

May 1, 2022
On the eve of a convicted killer's execution, his case is reopened in the most disturbing way imaginable. Back in 1996, Simon Barrow, the Shotgun Slayer, killed Bob and Linda Merritt in their North Carolina farmhouse; only Emily, their 8-year-old daughter, escaped. Now, as Hillsborough Gazette crime reporter Laura Chambers writes, his appeals have run out and he's about to face the ultimate punishment. Before the last chapter in Barrow's sorry life can close, Laura is pulled into what at first seems the fatal but otherwise routine death of a Jane Doe who ran in front of a truck. The preliminary investigation reveals that the victim was shot moments before she was run down and that in the hours before her death, she'd tried to phone Laura four times. Lt. David Whitley, of the Orange County Sheriff's Office, demands to know what Laura's connection to the dead woman was and refuses to accept Laura's reply that she can't identify the Jane Doe because they'd never met. Laura, who's already demonstrated her strong inclination to go her own way, persuades retired sheriff's investigator Don Rodgers to help her dig up information, and soon the two of them have crossed so many red lines that they're in greater danger from the police than from the shooter. But Laura has meanwhile unearthed a crucial lead that suggests she may have known the victim after all. Imagine the reaction of Whitley, who's already prepared to throw the book at Laura, when she tells him she thinks the corpse is that of her childhood friend Emily. Hetherton keeps turning up the heat and tossing in wrenching new twists even after the killer is unmasked.

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May 16, 2022
Hetherton’s exciting sequel to 2018’s Last Girl Gone finds Laura Chambers, hard-charging investigative reporter for the Hillsborough Gazette, enmeshed in a case that hits way too close to home. Simon Barrow (aka the Shotgun Slayer) was convicted of murdering Bob and Linda Merritt back in 1996. The Merritts lived on a farm in Hillsborough, N.C., a town that’s become infamous since the murder. As Barrow’s execution date nears in 2019, Laura writes a retrospective of the case that gets plenty of attention. Soon afterward, a young woman is killed on a local highway, and it turns out she had tried to call Laura four times before her death. The sheriff’s office believes Laura knows more than she’s sharing and warns her off the case, but she’s determined to investigate further, whatever the cost. The cost, it turns out, is steep indeed as Laura loses far more than her credibility with the local police and her boss at the Hillsborough Gazette. Hetherton’s sure hand provides plenty of action and intrigue, with well-defined yet deeply flawed characters. Readers will want more. Agent: Alice Martell, Martell Agency.