Halloween Is About Pretending to Be a Monster

Sometimes the Monsters Are Real

Most people spend Halloween dressing up as something terrifying.

Vampires. Witches. Serial killers. The occasional questionable interpretation of a sexy pumpkin.

It’s one night a year when people deliberately seek out the things that frighten them. They wander through haunted houses, scream at things jumping out of the dark, and pay good money to be scared witless.

The trick is knowing which monsters are pretend.

In Niagara Falls, Halloween brings neon lights, elaborate attractions, and enough manufactured terror to keep the tourists happy.

Marin Cross has a rather different problem.

She’s being hunted by a man who kills women who look like her.

And Caleb Ward isn’t wearing a costume.

Some Monsters Wear Familiar Faces

Most of Marin’s assignments are straightforward in principle, if not necessarily in execution. Jane Allen identifies a target. Marin gets to work. Someone who thought they were untouchable discovers otherwise.

But Caleb Ward presents a rather more personal problem.

He’s a rogue assassin murdering women who resemble Marin, and the authorities have no idea who they’re dealing with. They think they’re chasing a phantom serial killer.

They haven’t realised what Caleb really is.

Or how close he might be to his next victim.

For Marin, this isn’t simply another name on a list. Someone is killing women who look like her, and the man responsible has his own plans.

Jane sends Marin to stop him.

Unfortunately, the job takes a nasty turn at an upmarket bar, and suddenly, putting a bullet in Caleb Ward is no longer her only problem.

Because if there’s one thing Marin has learnt in her line of work, it’s that a mission can go sideways long before anyone starts shooting.

And this Halloween is already shaping up to be a particularly unpleasant one.

Mirrors Lie. People Are Worse.

There’s something wonderfully sinister about a funhouse.

The mirrors distort your face. The corridors twist in unexpected directions. Every reflection offers another version of you, and the person staring back might look familiar without being quite right.

It’s all fun and games when you know you’re inside a tourist attraction.

Not so much when someone has turned the place into a trap.

Marin’s hunt for Caleb leads into the twisting mirrors and smoke of a Halloween funhouse, where every reflection could conceal a threat, and the screams aren’t necessarily part of the entertainment.

Caleb has been planning this for a while.

And Marin isn’t the only person caught in his trap.

Suddenly, the funhouse isn’t somewhere to enjoy a good scare. It’s a maze she needs to survive.

The mirrors keep changing.

And somewhere among the reflections is a man who has decided Marin is part of his Halloween entertainment.

He should have picked a safer hobby.

The Hunter Becomes the Hunted

Marin is used to being the most dangerous person in the room.

It’s a quality that comes with the job. So is the ability to adapt when a plan falls apart, because plans have an unfortunate habit of doing exactly that.

But Caleb has his own agenda, and this isn’t a neat little assignment that ends when Marin pulls the trigger.

The job has become a fight for survival.

The hunter is now the hunted, and the usual rules no longer seem to apply.

And there’s a particular kind of danger in being targeted by someone who has planned for your arrival.

Trick or Treat

Halloween is a night of disguises, manufactured monsters, and people pretending to be something they’re not.

Tricky Little Treat takes that familiar premise and turns it into something considerably nastier.

Because the most dangerous monsters don’t always have fangs, claws, or elaborate costumes. Sometimes they look perfectly ordinary. Sometimes they blend into the crowd. And sometimes they spend their time hunting women who look like someone else.

Marin has a target to eliminate, a trap to escape, and a Halloween that’s gone so spectacularly wrong that a quiet evening with a cocktail or a slice of pumpkin pie is starting to sound like an unattainable luxury.

If you like your thrillers fast, ruthless, and drenched in Halloween atmosphere…if you enjoy dangerous women, rogue assassins, psychological games, and funhouses where the screams are real…

This one’s for you.

Tricky Little Treat is available now!

Because Halloween is supposed to be about facing your fears.

Marin would rather put a bullet in hers.