They flung themselves off the steps like mountain goat kids leaping from ledge to ledge and landed hip-deep in the snow on the side of the hill. Their breath billowed out in rolling clouds of steam. Josh Kirkwood and his two best buddies burst out of the locker room, flying into the cold, dark late afternoon, hollering at the tops of their lungs. 'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title. Ellen suddenly finds herself swept into a cruel contest of wits, a dark game of life and death. Is the nightmare continuing.or just beginning? Prosecutor Ellen North believes she has the right man-but that he has an accomplice in the shadows. But when a second boy vanishes, a frightened public demands to know if the police have caught the wrong man. Now a respected member of the community stands accused of a chilling act of evil. GUILTY AS SIN A psychopath has been playing a twisted game with a terrified Minnesota town. Together they'll hunt a madman who knows no bounds and for whom no sin is forbidden. For a local cop, it's the fear that big-city evil has come to stalk his small-town home. Has a cold-blooded kidnapper struck? Or is this the reawakening of a long-quiet serial killer? For a tough-minded investigator, it's her first make-or-break case. A young boy disappears and the only clue is a note-taunting and casually cruel. (Mar.) ~ FYI: A 16-page excerpt from Guilty as Sin appears in the paperback edition of Night Sins, published last month.NIGHT SINS A peaceful Minnesota town is about to face its worst nightmare. Hoag, who knows how to push the right buttons, is a suspense writer to watch. Readers new and old, however, will enjoy the political infighting, the legal jockeying and the several jolts of Grand Guignol violence. Those unfamiliar with Night Sins will need some time to sort out the characters' Peyton Place-like involvements. Complications arise quickly: the trial judge dies of a heart attack another boy vanishes Wright gains a new defense attorney who happens to be Ellen's ex-lover and Ellen gains a quasi-partner and potential flame, bestselling true-crime author Jay Brooks. When Josh reappears, unharmed physically but nearly autistic, Ellen is sure that Wright has an accomplice. Ellen fears the worst for the still-missing boy but thinks she can convict Garrett Wright, respected college professor, of his abduction.

With Megan now in the hospital, the heroine's cap in this sequel sits on the head of new Deer Lake resident-and Assistant County Attorney-Ellen North. In Night Sins (1994), Hoag's first thriller after a successful run of paperback romances, Minnesota state cop Megan O'Malley tried to solve the kidnapping of eight-year-old Josh Kirkwood in the Minneapolis exurb of Deer Lake.

Night sins guilty as sin