Cold Shot to the Heart

When a professional criminal robs a high-stakes card game, she finds herself on the run from a ruthless hitman in this "raw, hard-edged, noirish novel" (Booklist).

As a world-class thief, Crissa Stone never works too close to her New York City home, rarely works with the same crew twice, and never rushes a job. These are the rules she learned from her mentor and lover Wayne Boudreaux—rules he didn't follow as closely as he should've. Now Wayne has a chance at parole, and Crissa needs to find some real money real fast to help grease the wheels.

When she gets world of an illegal card game less than a week away, she slaps a plan and a crew together, desperate for a take that could be in the millions. It's supposed to be robbery, not murder. But when one of her crew loses his cool and they have to abandon the plan, she catches the attention of Eddie the Saint. A hit man recently released from prison, Eddie is no less of a pro than Crissa, and he could use the work—not to mention all that money.

"Just when you think that you can't be surprised anymore, a writer like Wallace Stroby ups the ante." —Laura Lippman, author of I'd Know You Anywhere