Strawgirl — Abigail Padgett

The three-year-old girl had been raped; now she was dead. Number one on the cops' list is her stepfather, Paul Massieu, member of a controversial New Age group based in New York State. For child abuse investigator Bo Bradley, the consequences are doubly chilling. Bo's heightened perceptions and uncanny instincts never lie--and now they tell her that this is not a case of ritual abuse. Then the victim's eight-year-old sister vanishes.

Tracing young Hannah to the group's Adirondacks retreat leads Bo to two startling conclusions: Massieu is not guilty, and only the truth can free Hannah from the psychic torment that could destroy her. Vowing to save the child, Bo desperately searches for the real killer. It is a quest that will take her across the continent, into the depths of her own being, and close to an evil unlike anything she has ever witnessed before.