The Cottage — Daniel Judson

A widowed mother is terrorized by a stalker with unfathomable intent in a novel of cold-blooded suspense by the Shamus Award–winning author of The Temporary Agent.When Kate Burke is awakened one night by a sound outside her window, her PTSD is triggered. Was it simply a deer crossing her secluded backyard? Or was it intruders? Because Kate still lives with the dreadful memories of her husband’s murder during a seemingly random home invasion two years before, she knows the answer can mean the difference between life and death.But when she discovers the unsettling ways her property has been vandalized the next day, Kate is forced to conclude the worst: someone is watching her.Kate decides to rent out her estranged sister’s onetime cottage, which sits on her property, for the summer. Another set of eyes around the place won’t hurt. And with additional support from friends and family, Kate should be feeling safe.Instead, the vandalism is escalating. So are the anonymous late-night calls and texts, each one more disturbing and violating than the last. Whoever is targeting Kate, whatever their motive or terrifying endgame, the footsteps in the dark are getting closer.