When Shadows Fall
Dear Dr. Owens,
If you are reading this letter, I am dead and I would be most grateful if you could solve my murder.
Forensic pathologist Dr. Samantha Owens thought life was finally returning to normal after she suffered a terrible personal loss. Settling into her new job at Georgetown University, the illusion is shattered when she receives a disturbing letter from a dead man imploring her to solve his murder. There's only one catch. Timothy Savage's death was so obviously the suicide of a demented individual that the case has been closed.
When Sam learns Savage left a will requesting she autopsy his body, she feels compelled to look into the case. Sam's own postmortem discovers clear signs that Savage was indeed murdered. And she finds DNA from a kidnapped child whose remains were recovered years earlier.
The investigation takes Sam into the shadows of a twenty-year-old mystery that must be solved to determine what really happened to Timothy Savage. Nothing about the case makes sense, but it is clear someone is unwilling to let anyone, especially Samantha Owens, discover the truth.
J.T. Ellison
J.T. Ellison has built her career on uncovering the secrets people hope will never surface. Her novels, spanning psychological thrillers, domestic noir, and crime fiction, thrive on the tension between what is said and what is hidden. With more than thirty books translated into over a dozen languages and millions of copies in print, she has become a familiar name to readers who crave stories where danger lurks in both dark alleys and well-lit kitchens.
Ellison’s path to writing was far from conventional. She studied politics and creative writing before earning a master’s degree in political management, then spent years working in government and the private sector, including a White House appointment and defense contracting. That background sharpened her sense of power, secrecy, and consequence, all of which seep into her fiction. Whether she is writing about a Nashville homicide detective in the Taylor Jackson series, a forensic pathologist chasing truth in Dr. Samantha Owens, or globe-spanning intrigue in A Brit in the FBI (co-written with Catherine Coulter), her stories pulse with authenticity grounded in meticulous research.
Samantha Owens
Samantha Owens consists of four books. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
