The Libri GmbH The House Of Thorns Paperback

What if the city's most revered gentleman was actually its most ruthless predator-and his most exquisite flowers were nourished by human blood?In the rain-slicked, filth-stained streets of 1975 New York City, young women are vanishing without a trace from the neon shadows of Manhattan. The press calls it a tragedy; the police call it a statistic. But behind the iron gates of a Greenwich Village estate, high-society fashion magnate David Cranston tends to a secret garden unlike any other. To the elite, he is a soft-spoken icon of culture and elegance. In reality, he is a sociopathic genius carrying on a twisted family legacy rooted in pure madness-viewing human lives not as souls, but as mere fertilizer for his private, grotesque botanical collection.When a rising dancer washes ashore on the icy banks of the Hudson River with a single, dark crimson rose blooming over her chest, veteran Detective Frank Miller is called to the scene. Weathered by twenty-five years on the NYPD, Miller knows this isn't a mugging gone wrong-it's a killer leaving a signature masterpiece. Pushed to the edge by corrupt politicians and a desperate department, Miller realizes he's playing a deadly game of chess with an invisible monster who leaves no fingerprints and no mistakes.To catch a killer who hides behind prestige and power, Miller must descend into the darkest corners of human nature and cross every line before the next victim is buried under the roots.Welcome to THE HOUSE OF THORNS-where beauty is a trap, madness is cultivated, and every rose hides a deadly secret.