Prologue At six a.m. the third floor of the CIA building was as quiet as a cemetery -- which was exactly how Peter Murphy liked it. Marching down the hall, the fifty-year-old ex-Marine nodded at the security guard who nodded back. In ten years they had never exchanged a single "good morning" but if one of them hadn’t shown up for work, the other would have been concerned. Murphy opened his office door and squinted in the sunlight. As he jerked the cord and lowered the vertical blinds, he made a mental note to remind his new assistant she was supposed do that before she left at night. Breaking in…

CHAPTER Chapter One September 23, 1996 FIVE WEEKS EARLIER Like most visitors to the New York Botanical Garden, I'd always seen them during the day in sunshine when the colors of the flowers and foliage were bright and their groomed perfection was obvious. But that evening, as we rode up the winding road that led through the gardens, the brilliance of the gardens was concealed by the encroaching twilight. Rather than the cultivated postcard I was familiar with, I found I preferred the mystery that loomed before me now as the shadows deepened. What was hiding in the old branches of the tall elm? In the twisted limbs of the…

Reviews Kirkus Reviews, November 1, 2000 Second novelist Rose... offers a well-crafted study of infideltiy, wrapped within the context of a psychothriller.... fast paced-tale.... altogether a satisfying blend. Publishers Weekly A suspenseful tale of murder, maddness and forgiveness... an entertaining... exciting read. Just Books Newsletter A spicy psychodrama sure to elevate the pulse rate of readers everywhere. The blistering suspense and steamy plot of this sexy tale are guaranteed to melt away the season's chill. January Magazine Compelling, tantalizing, inspiring, mysterious, thought-provoking and erotic... In Fidelity's finely-woven threads connect in a superb plot that thrills and chills on the way to a higher understanding. The Charlotte Austin Review In Fidelity…

"You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait. Do not even wait, be quite still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet." --Franz Kafka   GENERAL INTERESTS There's a cliché that authors love cats? Do you? Nope, never have I loved a cat. But I do love dogs -- especially dogs under ten pounds that can sit on my chair with me when I type and then take me on long long walks in the park. What kind of…

  Instructions for downloading the QuickTime video if you are on a PC. If you are on a Mac - just click. 1. Click on the Quicktime video on MJ Rose's site. 2. This opens a window with the URL:https://www.mjrose.com/novels/FTWebSm2.mov 3. Copy that URL. 4. Open your Quicktime Player 5. Click "FILE" on your Quicktime Player 6. In the File menu, click on OPEN URL 7. Paste the above URL into the area that comes up 8. Click "OK". The video should load, in a minute or two. Return to mjrose.com   Join M.J.'s email list here: [email protected] Write to M.J. for a free autographed bookplate at [email protected]   Home…

Reviews for How to Publish and Promote Online: "An informative and ground-breaking guide." -- Publishers Weekly "I absolutely loved this book -- and I would not say this lightly, because I read a lot of books on success in writing and success on the Internet, and few have actually helped me as this one has. Plus, it has websites to go to for more information and the additional dimension that the Web can provide. MJ Rose has been an inspiration to me as I've written and e-published my own fiction -- and gotten sponsorships for it, which means I can make a decent living writing fiction for the Internet. But…