Beyond Dark 1

"I am surrounded by beautiful things… but I am not one of them." 

Agent Alyssa Rawkesby never thought she'd relate so strongly to a serial killer's letter. But the moment she reads it, she knows there is no going back - she must find the notorious Belladonna Killer, even if it breaks the mental stability she spent seven years repairing. Women in Ottawa, Ontario are being poisoned to death and left posed with a bizarre signature. The grief and fear is filtering through the entertainment industry over a shadow slipping death into drinks. 
As an expert in female serial killers, and a veteran criminal psychologist, Alyssa never before encountered a case like this. Is Belladonna a sadistic monster, or a victim of something sinister Alyssa is too familiar with? She fears looking Belladonna in the eye will be like looking at her own reflection - or that of someone she cut from her life a long time ago. But time is running out to save other women. She gets assigned a new, rookie partner, and she tries not to unravel as lines blur between what the killer truly is and the pieces of her own past.  

"I know how it feels to live with crippling insecurity behind a mask of false ego and confidence. I only want to connect to a world I feel so detached from. To connect with something, anything to feel normal." - Alyssa