THE DEADLIEST DENIAL on Shelves May 2nd...

I've long been fascinated by the defense mechanism of denial. When the news is too terrible for the human mind to deal with, the automatic first reaction is a strong, "No!" I've seen parents of the students I once taught do it when their children were accused of cheating. I've heard women do the same, crying, "Yes, he did it this time, but it won't happen again" or "I don't care what the witnesses say. I really know this man." I've used it myself, when hearing that an accident took the life of a good friend.

In my May 2006 romantic suspense, The Deadliest Denial, the heroine, Claire Winslow, has this same, human reaction to the news that her beloved husband, police officer Spence Winslow, has been arrested for plotting her murder. In spite of all the evidence against him -- and her own resolution -- when Spence skips bail and tracks her down at their ranch during a violent Texas thunderstorm, she is tempted to believe the wild story he tells her. Is Claire's faith a knee-jerk response to Spence's seductive magnetism, the last gasp of their dying love, or is it only her deadliest denial?

Colleen Thompson's first book for Dorchester, Fatal Error, launched a line of fast-paced, steamy romantic suspense and was a 2005 RITA award finalist as well as the winner of the Texas Gold award for mainstream fiction. Fade the Heat followed, acclaimed as an "exceptional novel of romantic suspense" in a starred review from Publisher's Weekly. Future releases include Heat Lightning, November 2006. For more information, visit Colleen's web site.

"The Deadliest Denial by Colleen Thompson an exciting romantic suspense with a wicked twist."
-- Romance Junkies