A Need To Know: A Bad Thing Never Dies

Nineteen-year-old Mandy McCallister agrees to visit a death-row inmate who has contacted her with a puzzling message, propelling her into a world of mystery and intrigue far beyond any experience she has previously known. The information she receives is related to a violent home-invasion that occurred fifteen years earlier, a crime that did irreparable harm to Mandy’s typical, middle-class American family. In an effort to uncover the truth behind the brutal assault, Mandy enlists Arlen Holloway--a cynical, hard-drinking, former homicide detective--as her advisor and protector. The trail they follow produces a series of unexpected discoveries. As the mystery of who was behind the home-invasion unravels, startling facts about Mandy's family are revealed, details she never expected nor could even imagine. A Need To Know was a quarterfinalist in a national writing contest, with a Publishers Weekly reviewer stating that, “The book's nonstop action is engaging and entertaining. . .the character at its heart is a complex and ultimately likable heroine, simultaneously irritating and sympathetic, intelligent and foolishly brave, levelheaded and rash. Watching her mature from an awkward teen to a self-possessed young woman is one of the novel's more subtle and exquisite delights.”