Shadowlands

After a serial killer attacks Rory Miller, the teenager and her family flee to an out-of-state FBI safe house in the nerve-racking first book in a trilogy from Brian (the Private series). Their destination, Juniper Landing, may not be as idyllic as it seems: the fog-soaked island town lacks phone and Internet service, and a group of powerful young locals is overly focused on Rory. Residents are untroubled when people mysteriously disappear; stranger still, Rory’s older sister can’t remember them after they are gone. Interstitial chapters, told from the murderer’s point of view, reveal that he remains committed to finishing his job (“He’d tasted her fear again, so sweet and salty.... The possibility was almost too much to bear”). The killer (who posed as Rory’s math teacher) is truly frightening, and readers will be haunted by his interludes and by the chilling evidence of his stalking. In contrast, the mystery of Juniper Landing itself is less of a thrill; questions will remain even when the truth is revealed, awaiting exploration in the later books. An Alloy Entertainment property. Ages 14–up. Agent: Sarah Burnes, the Gernert Company. (Jan.)