The Suitor: A Novel

By Michael Allegretto

Saved from a mugger, a young woman runs into the arms of a madman.

On her way to meet a friend for lunch at a Mexican restaurant in a seedy part of downtown Denver, Valerie Rowe gets tackled from behind. When she's back on her feet, her purse is gone, and the teenager who took it is sprinting down the street. She chases after him, but knows it's hopeless -- right until her mugger runs into Leonard. This quiet young man refuses a reward for retrieving her purse, but accepts an invitation to lunch. Though she doesn't know it, Valerie's moment of politeness could prove fatal.

Leonard never talks to girls besides his mother, and no one so beautiful as Valerie has ever even looked at him before. Instantly in love, he begins courting her obsessively, graduating quickly from love notes and flowers to arson and, perhaps, murder. He is fixated on Valerie, and will allow no law to stand in his way.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Head of Zeus
• Release date: Jun 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781784083007

Michael Allegretto

Michael Allegretto (b. 1944) is an American author of thrillers and mystery fiction best known for creating Colorado private detective Jacob Lomax. Raised in Colorado, Allegretto spent his youth listening to the stories of his father, a Denver police officer whose experiences he later used as the basis for his first books. He made his debut in 1987 with Death on the Rocks, a story of murder, blackmail, and pornography that introduced Allegretto’s only series character: Jacob Lomax, an ex-cop who becomes a private detective after the brutal murder of his wife. Lomax would star in four more novels, including Blood Stone (1988), The Dead of Winter (1989), and Grave Doubt (1995). In the early 1990s, Allegretto began writing standalone novels, including the Christmas suspense story Night of Reunion (1990) and the fast-paced family thriller The Watchmen (1991).