Books by Brian Freeman: STRIPPED

Click to Read an Excerpt

Sex and money. Glamour and vice. Welcome to Vegas, baby.

It’s always hot on the Strip, and now it’s getting hotter. Two murders have shocked the neon city – a celebrity assassinated during a fling with a prostitute, and a schoolboy killed in a brutal hit-and-run. Two victims with nothing in common, two deaths without a motive.

Jonathan Stride and Serena Dial are detectives and lovers who are feeling the heat to get these crimes out of the headlines. But this is Vegas, where everyone keeps secrets, especially about murder. And soon there are more dead bodies on the Strip...

Following a trail of sex and revenge, Stride and Serena find themselves racing the clock against a determined serial killer. If they can’t expose the truth in time, it may wind up buried forever in the debris of Sin City’s dazzling, sordid past.

But exposing the truth might just get them killed. Because there are only two ways to go in Vegas. You can hit the jackpot. Or you can get stripped...

“A knockout...Stripped is a hypnotic tale that examines the corrosive effect of a town dedicated to decadence, filtered through characters painfully real and thoroughly believable.”
– Baltimore Sun

“What sets the author apart are his rich, complex characters... Recommended for fans of Harlan Coben, who will enjoy the compelling cast and swift sinuous plot.”
– Booklist (starred review)

“Freeman fuses character and plot expertly.”
– Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Stripped is one of the best new American novels I’ve read this year...a sizzling mystery with a complex plot and lots of action.”
– Toronto Globe and Mail

“Freeman consistently hits his thriller marks, keeping the action coming and the tension high...The height of guilty pleasures.”
– Kirkus Reviews

“Freeman does it again....Riveting...finishes with a slam-bang ending....There’s not a character that Freeman doesn't make the reader care about.”
– South Florida Sun-Sentinel

“Freeman has crafted a strong narrative, rife with sex and violence.”
– Publishers Weekly

“Highly recommended for all mystery and thriller collections.”
– Library Journal

“A major new talent.”
– The Bookseller

“Freeman captures the sleazy atmosphere of the city...driving its narrative briskly to a dramatic conclusion”
– Sunday Telegraph

“Freeman ably juggles multiple plot strands while never losing sight of the human dimension, and sketches an impressive gallery of characters with whom the reader cannot but empathise as he ruthlessly strips them down to their fallibilities... Confirmation of a major talent”
– Guardian

“A hugely talented and, as yet, under-recognised US crime writer who certainly hits the jackpot with this tale”
– Daily Mirror

“A cracking second novel”
– Manchester Evening News

“Superbly engineered and supported by fast and revealing dialogue, the narrative is distinguished by powerful characterisation that breathes life into every actor; real people with real psychological baggage. Raunchy, erotic, captivating – the mystery compounds with every chapter end.”
– The Courier Mail

“Sex, violence, and power permeate the story...Stripped is a police procedural that grabs the reader on the first page and doesn’t let go.”
– Mystery Scene Magazine

“Absolutely irresistible”
– Winnipeg Free Press