{"product_id":"now-you-dont-9781998648474","title":"Now You Don't","description":"\u003cp\u003eDetective Cal Dempsey has spent twenty years building walls between her work and her life. At forty-eight, she's never been in a relationship, never let anyone past her defenses, never been anything but the job. Then crime scene photographer Mara Snowden-the police chief's niece and a fixture at crime scenes for years-disappears without explanation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLeft behind: a single photograph of a murder victim with three words written on the back in Mara's handwriting: \u003cstrong\u003eFor U Callisto.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCallisto is a name Dempsey buried at eighteen. A childhood nickname from a group home, known only to people from a life she's never discussed. A name that no one in her current world should know.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAssigned to find her missing colleague, Dempsey breaks into Mara's apartment and discovers a black leather journal. Inside: surveillance photographs of Dempsey taken over years without her knowledge. Detailed observations of her routines, her habits, her solitary life. Explicit sexual fantasies about a woman Mara has been watching, studying, wanting-but never approaching. The journal reveals an obsession that's been growing in the dark, patient and methodical.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe victim in the photograph is Stefan Tapani, a police confidential informant with a history of violent crimes he's never paid for. Two years ago, he sexually assaulted Mara. Three witnesses-all connected to law enforcement-gave statements claiming the encounter was consensual. Tapani walked free. The case was closed.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNow those three witnesses are dead within weeks of each other: a drowning, a suicide, a fall down the stairs. The kind of deaths that don't look like murders until someone connects them. Dempsey connects them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs she traces the pattern through old case files and crime scene reports, Dempsey realizes Mara hasn't just been watching her-she's been leaving breadcrumbs. Each crime scene disguised as tragedy. Each death perfectly executed. Each piece of evidence placed where only Dempsey would find it. The investigation isn't a hunt. It's an invitation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen Mara finally surfaces, the confrontation isn't what Dempsey expects. There's no denial, no deflection. Instead, Mara offers something Dempsey has never had: to be truly seen. To be chosen. To matter to someone beyond her badge and her cases. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe confession becomes a seduction. The evidence becomes foreplay. And Dempsey-who has spent two decades alone, who has never been wanted, who has never let herself want anything beyond the job-feels the walls she's built beginning to crack.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe choice before her is impossible: turn in the first person who's ever desired her and maintain her integrity, or become complicit in the only justice Mara could get. Because in a system that protects informants over victims, that values procedures over people, that let a rapist walk free-what is justice actually worth? \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eNow You Don't\u003c\/em\u003e is a noir psychological thriller about obsession, complicity, and the terrible freedom of finally being seen-even when the person seeing you is destined to destroy you, or perhaps especially then.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eTownsend, Fiona:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - Fiona Townsend is a U.S.-based writer of psychological crime fiction. Her work examines obsession, complicity, and the power dynamics embedded in acts of watching and being watched. Now You Don't is her debut novel.","brand":"Northshore Noir","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51967058411794,"sku":"9781998648474","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_bc4f4e87-b0b6-43e4-bb3e-1f3711ffbf79.jpg?v=1768923286","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/now-you-dont-9781998648474","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}