The First Cut — Dianne Emley

For two minutes she was dead.

The assailant was vicious, the attack brutal, and it left her lifeless -- until her pulse fluttered and she jolted awake. Now, a year later, Detective Nan Vining rejoins the Pasadena PD, only to confront a homicide case that strikes too close to home: Slain policewoman Frankie Lynde has been discovered beneath the Colorado Street Bridge, her body bruised, her throat slit. Even as Vining struggles to recover her standing within the department, she can't help but feel profoundly drawn to the murdered officer -- and she is deeply troubled by the baffling otherworldly visions that haunt her waking hours. Tracking a killer as ruthless as he is depraved, Vining pushes herself to bold new limits, desperate to avenge Frankie Lynde's death -- and to reclaim the life she lost a year ago.