Nothing is quite as it seems in Scott Hudak's twisting new crime novel, Death Cards, where an investigation into a teenager's disappearance reveals that even the simplest of events can cover up a much darker reality. When eighteen-year-old Lauren Shor is abducted on December 16, 1977, the New York City police force plunge into a full scale investigation. But a year passes and there are still no leads, a fact that makes their next discovery so agonizing: One year after the disappearance, the Shor family receives a holiday card from Lauren's abductor. For the next twenty-three years, the "death cards" arrive every Christmas, while Lauren's unsolved case eventually becomes buried, only to land on the desk and into the life of Detective Paula Brocton years later. As Detective Brocton's determination to discover the truth, drives her to dig deeper into the past, secrets slowly reveal themselves-secrets that were meant to stay buried. "There's an absorbing and frightening sense of reality at the heart of this debut novel. Cleverly plotted and convincingly written... Scott Hudak is a real find in the mystery field." -Peter Lovesey, renowned British mystery writer