T.O. Paine
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T.O. Paine is an award-winning author of fast-paced thriller suspense novels. He is a member of International Thriller Writers and holds a master’s degree in computer information systems. When he is not writing, you can find him running and cycling through the mountains of Colorado, USA. T.O. has run fifty marathons in fifty states, ridden his road bike hundreds of miles over 10,000-foot mountains, and completed an IRONMAN. He resides with his wife, two children, and two Boston terriers: Fiona the Ogre and Rudy the Trickster.
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The Delusion
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Thriller
Don’t believe everything you read on the internet. It’ll drive you crazy. Literally. Hotel ballroom lights flicker as the University of Baltimore announces the winner of this year’s Tiberian Research Award in Psychology. Years of toil and sacrifice weigh on Emma’s shoulders. Years of enduring her professor’s unearthly demands. Years of researching mass persuasion on the internet late into the night, living in a single-bedroom apartment on campus while her friends moved away and started families. Years spent watching her mother die of cancer before Emma could give her the grandchildren she wanted. Years. But it all ends tonight. Just not the way Emma thought it would . . . When her professor suddenly goes missing, she realizes the power of her research. The power of persuasion. Gaslighting on a global scale. Now, she must rescue her professor before sinister forces use her research to take over the minds of everyone on social media. And, because everyone is on social media, we’re all at risk. Look at your cell phone. Open your favorite app. Post pictures of your cat and catch up with trusted friends, but don’t doomscroll. Don’t believe everything you read. That’s what he wants you to do. 
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The Excursion
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Thriller
"Escape was never an option." Charly Highsmith is a survivor. Abandoned by her parents, she spent her teens looking after her autistic brother on the bitter streets of Denver, Colorado, with nothing but a jacket and a backpack. But things are better now. Charly and Jacob live in a two-bedroom apartment near a mall, and with the passing of their long-lost father, they’ve inherited a cabin high in the Rocky Mountains. Charly’s eager to go there. Relive the good times she had as a child, running through the forest with Jacob and her cousins. Amanda the Overachiever. Cam the Recluse. But when they arrive, the cabin isn’t empty. Barry the Millionaire. Kennedy the Social Media Magnet. Randall the Hunter. Standing by the fireplace, Charly sees that look in her neurodivergent brother’s eyes. He’s going to run. He’s going to burst into the unforgiving snowstorm, sprint around the frozen lake, and hide in the forest like he did when they were young. So much for reliving the good times. Randall the Hunter goes to the window. Opens the curtains. The blizzard rages outside. He says no one is leaving. He says nothing will stop the hunt. Nothing will stop the excursion. 
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The Resentment
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Thriller
Lauren Kaine has everything she ever wanted — a fabulous home, a shiny Lexus, a bright sixteen-year-old son, and a loving husband with a lucrative internet career. Tonight, she walks hand-in-hand with William beneath the lustrous Seattle sky, celebrating twenty-two years of marriage. But they’re not alone. A mysterious black Audi comes out of nowhere and chases William onto a bridge. He shouts, “They’re here for the card,” and falls to his death. Enraged, Lauren attacks the car, but the tinted windows hide the driver’s face, and it speeds away. Still mourning, she sets out to find her husband’s killer when a stranger calls and demands the card. William never mentioned a card, and she doesn’t know where it is. The stranger follows her. He threatens to kidnap her son and throw him into the river that killed William. It’s not just the stranger. Black cars lurk around every corner. William’s co-workers refuse to talk. Her brother-in-law resurfaces after years of silence, and he knows something, but she’s running out of time. She searches for the card, and the past pulls her back to the first time someone kidnapped her son. Back to her resentment. Back to the truth. 
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The Teaching
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Thriller
They had her life planned, but when a mysterious girl goes missing, the search just might end her life. Raine Harkins believes everything the Teaching tells her—forgiveness is freedom, there are no dead, and there is no dying. She has lived her entire life in the Haven, a small religious community buried in the hills of northern Nevada, and it’s been a good life. But when she discovers a frightened teenage girl hiding in the forest, everything changes. Raine offers to help the girl, but gunshots ring out, and the girl runs away, never to be seen again. A week later, Raine finds a letter pinned to her cabin door—God doesn’t want you here. Leave the Haven now, before he runs you down. Raine can’t bear the thought of leaving the only life she’s ever known, but the threatening letters keep coming, and her search for the missing girl leads her down a twisted path, unraveling the truth behind the Teaching. It’s not a good life—there are dead, and people do die. 
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