Body Parts

Joe Frye, the only woman cop in Miami's homicide division, is haunted, shadowed by memories. Not even her lover, detective Louis Kincaid, knows the whole story that began in 1975. Back then, Frye was the low person on the totem pole, an ambitious 22-year-old rookie who had a lot to prove.

She remembers clearly when they found the first bone.

Two boys and their dog playing in the woods uncovered a female pelvic bone near a small town called Echo Bay, Michigan. It was the beginning of a trail of bones�never a complete skeleton�of young girls brutally murdered by a serial killer.

"The experience will change her life and how she views herself as a woman and police officer," says thriller author PJ Parrish, who is in fact a team of two sisters, Kelly Nichols and Kris Montee.

As the investigation intensifies, Joe is caught between the demands of a local sheriff and the state police, and a predator who has been operating over the course of a decade�a murderer who has chosen her as an opponent or next his victim.

A Thousand Bones is a new venture for Parrish. It's the first time the sisters have written about a female protagonist. Though Louis Kincaid makes an appearance, he is not a lead character. "Strangely, after seven books, it was a challenge to write about a female," says Parrish. "We really had to shift gears."

PJ Parrish aka Kelly Nichols and Kris Montee are the creators of the Louis Kincaid series. Their novels have appeared on the NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY bestseller lists and been nominated numerous times for Edgar and Shamus awards. Nichols lives in Mississippi and Montee lives in Florida. You can read an excerpt from A THOUSAND BONES here (be sure to scroll down to the middle of the page).