Caroline Crane Bücher

Die Zweitfrau - bk126; Bastei Lübbe Verlag; Caroline Crane; pocket_book; 1984

Das Zeichen des Mörders - bk518; Bastei Lübbe; Caroline Crane; pocket_book; 1985

Die 14-jährige Cinni wird als Marys beste Wahl für eine Mutterhilfe angesehen. Doch als der Sommer beginnt, hat sich Cinni verändert und zeigt eine bedrohliche Seite. Getrieben von Neid plant sie, Marys Leben zu übernehmen, was die Familie in einen Strudel aus Angst und Terror zieht.

The terror begins with a phone call in the night. A little boy has been injured, hit by a car. Hundreds of miles away his frantic mother, Diane Hastings, tries to reach him by the earliest flight. It is a holiday weekend and no seats are available. In desperation she turns to her former lover, Travis, an amateur pilot. That same night, shots ring out in the city. A teen-age girl falls dead, victim of a restaurant holdup. The bandit, fleeing on foot, disappears. The next morning, when Diane, Travis, and his young daughter Shelley embark on their trip upstate, they are joined by a stranger who begs for a ride to reach his sick wife in Montreal. Over the frozen Adirondack wilderness, the plane is forced down. Diane and Travis, both injured in the crash, are left for dead. Shelley is taken hostage by the stranger. The temperature plummets and a snowstorm begins, making rescue impossible. With Travis in danger of dying from his injuries, Diane must do something. But what? The stranger, armed and vicious, is out there in the snow, ready to strike at any moment.

A teenager has been kidnapped. The ransom was paid, but Amy is still missing. Detective Mike Tarasco turns to his friend Solomon Thayer, a professional psychic, for help. Solomon “sees” the girl in an underground vault. He “sees” that there have been others victimized by the same person. As Solomon searches for the girl, his feelings about the kidnapper grow stronger. He senses something terrible, something evil. But hampered by personal problems, he is unable to concentrate. His young wife, rebelling against an unsatisfying marriage, has been seeing another man, but she does not want to hurt Solomon. Because he is psychic, she must block her thoughts. Aware that something is happening, he struggles to penetrate her mental wall as she struggles to protect it. Meanwhile, a man is caught with some of the ransom money. He confesses to the kidnapping, but cannot tell the police where Amy is. They think they have their perpetrator. Solomon disagrees, but no one listens. He is losing his wife and his credibility. Then the killer strikes again. And again. The story races toward a startling climax as Solomon engages in a life-and-death struggle for everything that he and others hold precious.

Kate Armstrong pays little attention to the news about a fatal holdup in a local bank. Her mind is on Ted’s trip to Chicago with a beautiful co-worker. She can’t know how soon the crime will affect her. Kate and her children are just leaving a circus day gala at the shopping mall when they are taken prisoner by two desperate fugitives. Forced to drive all night in the rain, Kate knows that her only use is to provide transportation. Once the desperadoes reach safety, she and the children will be killed. Their absence is noticed only when Ted returns home to an empty house. While detectives search in vain for a witness or a clue, Kate struggles alone against the horrors of captivity, the constant threat of death. In only a matter of time, her children, and then she, will be eliminated. But she is helpless against the bandits and their guns, their muscle power, and the strange psychological tie that binds a victim to her captor. This is a story of suspense and detection, of ordinary people caught in extraordinary circumstances, of a mother confronted with a terrible choice.

Mystery Writers of America Presents: A suspenseful novel of a seaside vacation turned deadly. Fourteen might seem a little young for a full-time mother's helper, but Mary Shelburne wasn't worried. Prim and responsible Cinni was the best girl Mary interviewed. With two small children and another on the way, Mary needed help that summer at their rented beach house on the tip of Long Island. Her husband Gavin could join them only on weekends. By the time summer arrives, Cinni has changed. Gone are the owlish glasses and the dumpy figure. Cinni is indeed mature, but not in a way Mary would have suspected. At first Mary doubts her own sanity. Who would believe that such a polite, quiet girl could be a threat-until it's too late? Eaten by envy, Cinni is determined to take over Mary's life and will stop at nothing, even murder. By the time Mary understands this, Cinni has the upper hand. The whole Shelburne family is pulled into a web of vicious terror.

Before her marriage to Carl Gilwood, life for Joyce, a widow, was filled with hardship. Now she can make a new beginning for herself and her young daughter Gail. Now Gail will have a chance to grow up safe in the surburbs . . . Until two girls are reported missing. Until Gail and her friend, playing one summer afternoon in the woods, make a grisly discovery. Then another missing girl is found murdered. The crimes are hideous, the work of a maniac, an irrational killer. His victims could be anybody. So could he. Is he the local wino, or some neighbor hiding behind a façade of respectability? Panic rages. The heat is on Police Chief Frank D’Amico to find the killer before another girl dies. The murders go on. With Carl at work all day, Joyce is left to cope alone. And to wonder. Her life is falling apart. Her family is in danger—from more than just the murders. Then Gail and her playmate disappear . . .

Denise can feel someone watching her. She sees a pair of headlights blaze as she says goodnight to her friend, attorney Harlan Reyes. Then the phone calls begin. "You're alone now, Mrs. Burns. Are you sure your children are safe?" She is very much alone. Divorced fashion model Denise Burns lives for her two young children and her coming remarriage. But her fiance is out of town and the caller knows it. He knows everything about her, even the moment she turns out her light. The next day she learns Harlan Reyes was shot to death soon after they parted. A reporter pursues her with questions. Denise was among the last to see him alive. When one of her children nearly dies, she flees with them to the farm where her married sister lives. Too late, she discovers flight is impossible. The watching eyes have followed her. The family is cut off from any help or escape as the shadowy menace closes in. One man can save them—if he can find them in time. But Denise, who could not hide from the watcher, has hidden all too successfully from the man who loves her. The man she could not trust.