Outfox

by Sandra Brown

Overview

From a New York Times bestselling author, an FBI agent becomes a suspected serial killer's next-door neighbor.

FBI agent Drex Easton is driven by a single goal: to outmaneuver sociopath Weston Graham, who's responsible for the disappearance of eight women. But each time Drex gets close to catching him, Weston trades one persona for another and disappears again. 

Now, for the first time in their long game of cat and mouse, Drex might have his chance. His suspect has recently married a succesful businesswoman, Talia Shafer. Drex poses himself as their new neighbor, waiting for the right moment to strike–but his attraction to Talia threatens to compromise his mission.

This is Drex's one chance to outfox his cunning nemesis before he murders again–but first he must determine whether Talia is a heartless accomplice...or the next victim.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781455572205
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	08/04/2020
Pages:	496
Sales rank:	1,000,754
Product dimensions:	4.10(w) x 7.40(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Sandra Brown is the author of seventy-two New York Times bestsellers. There are over eighty million copies of her books in print worldwide, and her work has been translated into thirty-four languages. She lives in Texas. For more information you can visit www.SandraBrown.net.

Hometown:

Arlington, TX

Date of Birth:

March 12, 1948

Place of Birth:

Waco, Texas

Education:

Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, Texas Christian University, 2008

Website:

http://www.sandrabrown.net/

Editorial Reviews

06/24/2019

FBI special agent Drex Easton, the hero of this engrossing thriller from bestseller Brown (Tailspin), is obsessed with catching a serial killer who has preyed on wealthy single women for more than 30 years. The cunning murderer, who uses various aliases, leaves no clues behind, only missing women and empty bank accounts. A lead takes Drex and his team to Mount Pleasant, S.C., where he poses as the new neighbor of the suspected killer, now using the name Jasper Ford, who has a beautiful, much younger wife, Talia Shafer. Drex wants to find out whether Talia knows Jasper is a killer, but in the process he falls helplessly in love with her. In a further complication, another FBI agent, who hates Drex and wants to discredit him, tries to shut down the case. Drex sets a trap for Jasper, but his weakness for Talia threatens its success and the lives of his fellow agents. Well-defined characters complement the twisty plot, which ends with a gratifying final revelation. Brown once again shows that why she remains at the top of the suspense field. Agent: Maria Carvainis, Maria Carvainis Agency. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"Sandra Brown is a publishing icon, and Outfox may be her best book ever . . . [a] fast-moving story that will please her millions of fans."—New York Journal of Books

"Sandra Brown is a master when it comes to rogue characters, increasing the level of tension to cause the pace of the narrative to move faster and faster . . . This time she not only nails a story that has several surprises, but also maintains the quality that everyone expects in her novels."—Associated Press

"An engrossing thriller . . . Well-defined characters complement the twisty plot, which ends with a gratifying final revelation. Brown once again shows why she remains at the top of the suspense field."—Publishers Weekly

"Sandra Brown continues her string of remarkable hardcore thrillers with the canny and clever Outfox . . . Sultry, scintillating storytelling of the highest order that never lets up or lets us down."—BookTrib.com

"Outfox is packed with suspense and love. It is an extraordinarily satisfying and entertaining novel."—The Washington Book Review

"Will keep readers riveted as they try to figure out the clues in this pulse-pounding psychological thriller . . . Fans of Sandra Brown's work will be captured by the book's signature romance, her surprising clever twists, and the well-crafted ending."—Bookreporter.com

"An excellent crime novel."—Mississauga.com

PRAISE FOR SANDRA BROWN

"A masterful storyteller."—USA Today

"One of the best thriller writers around, period."—Providence Journal

"A novelist who can't write them fast enough."—San Antonio Express-News

"Brown deserves her own genre."—Dallas Morning News

From the Publisher

Brown is a master when it comes to rogue characters, increasing the level of tension to cause the pace of the narrative to move faster and faster…This time she not only nails a story that has several surprises but also maintains the quality that everyone expects in her novels.”

Associated Press

Narrator Victor Slezak maneuvers listeners through the cat-and-mouse game…Slezak’s calm and cool voice keeps the listener’s rapt attention whether he’s describing romantic moments or diving into the complicated mind of a killer on a spree.”

AudioFile

Sandra Brown is a publishing icon, and Outfox may be her best book ever…[a] fast-moving story that will please her millions of fans.”

New York Journal of Books

"Outfox is packed with suspense and love. It is an extraordinarily satisfying and entertaining novel.”

Washington Book Review

Narrator Victor Slezak maneuvers listeners through the cat-and-mouse game being played by FBI agent Drex Easton and the serial killer who murdered his mother. When Drex was a child, his mother went missing without a trace. Now an adult, he’s devoted all of his resources to finding her killer and finally catching him when the rest of the Bureau can’t. Easton’s surprising romance with the killer’s wife makes things more complicated, and Easton finds himself having to work to balance his desire for revenge and his new romance. Slezak’s calm and cool voice keeps the listener’s rapt attention whether he’s describing romantic moments or diving into the complicated mind of a killer on a spree. V.B. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

OCTOBER 2019 - AudioFile

2019-07-28
An FBI agent is determined to catch a man who bilks and murders wealthy women, but the chase goes slowly.

Brown (Tailspin, 2018, etc.) has published 70 bestsellers, and this one employs her usual template of thriller spiked with romance. Its main character, Drex Easton, is an FBI agent in pursuit of a serial killer, but for him it's personal. When he was a boy, his mother left him and his father for another man, Weston Graham. Drex believes Graham murdered her and that he has killed at least seven more women after emptying their bank accounts. Now he thinks he has the clever Graham—current alias Jasper Ford—in his sights, and he's willing to put his career at risk to catch him. The women Ford targets are wealthy, and his new prey is no exception—except that, uncharacteristically, he has married her. Talia Ford proves to be a complication for Drex, who instantly falls in lust with her even though he's not at all sure she isn't her husband's accomplice. Posing as a would-be novelist, Drex moves into an apartment next door to the Fords' posh home and tries to ingratiate himself, but tensions rise immediately—Jasper is suspicious, and Talia has mixed feelings about Drex's flirtatious behavior. When Talia's fun-loving friend Elaine Conner turns up dead after a cruise on her yacht and Jasper disappears, Drex and Talia become allies. There are a few action sequences and fewer sex scenes, but the novel's pace bogs down repeatedly in long, mundane conversations. Drex's two FBI agent sidekicks are more interesting characters than he is; Drex himself is such a caricature of a macho man, so heedless of ethics, and so aggressive toward women that it's tough to see him as a good guy. Brown adds a couple of implausible twists at the very end that make him seem almost as untrustworthy as Graham.

This thriller about the pursuit of a serial killer suffers from an unpleasant hero and a glacial pace.

Kirkus Reviews