Seven years ago, Lara Church lived in Seattle, Washington and had just landed her dream job in the fashion industry. She went out to celebrate with friends that night and the next thing she knew, she was in the hospital fighting for her life. As it turned out, Lara was the seventh victim of a serial killer known as the Seattle Strangler. The main thing that separated Lara from the other six victims is that Lara survived her attack while the other women did not.

With her life shattered in Seattle, Lara leaves there and travels around the country for a while until she lands back in Austin, Texas where her grandmother has left a house to her following her death. It turns out to be a great move for her because she gets a job teaching photography at a local college as well as a successful showing of her own photographs. Yes, things are really looking up for Lara. The thing is, though, the Seattle Strangler seems to be active again and this time he's killing women in Texas.

There's an even bigger problem, too. Lara doesn't remember anything about her attack or her attacker. So if this happens to be the same man, how would anyone know?

Texas Ranger James Beck is determined to stop the Strangler as well as protect Lara. As far as he's concerned, that means forcing Lara to remember what happened to her the night of her attack. This is something he's going to make happen no matter what the cost to Lara's sanity is.

Mary Burton has long been a successful writer of bestselling suspense and romance novels. I've been a personal fan of hers for years and THE SEVENTH VICTIM has only made me even more of one. There's just the right amount of creepy, scary and downright terror that will make sure you've got all the lights on as you read. The romantic element is not a sudden one just to get to that required sex scene. Things get to grow and when it happens, it makes sense. But the great thing about THE SEVENTH VICTIM is that it's more about solving the mystery and catching the killer than it is about romance, even though there is the appropriate amount of that, too. Basically, as usual, Ms. Burton combines the correct amount of all the ingredients that makes a successful suspenseful mystery.