Claire O'Brien is a sassy, take-no-prisoners kind of gal who knows how to get the job done. Working for Rogan- Caruso Protective Services, the most influential private detective firm in Sacramento, California, she has rightfully earned her place among the best. Her killer instincts and ability to dig for the truth have proven to be her most valuable assets. Quite simply, there is nothing she won't do to achieve justice for the innocent. And, no one knows that better than her own father, an escaped killer.

Tom O'Brien, a tough cop who wore his badge with honor, was framed and convicted for the murders of his wife and her lover. Claire, his orphaned daughter, is forced to spend the remainder of her childhood trying to come to terms with her parents' betrayals. For both Tom and Claire, their bond of trust has been mortally wounded. There's no going back. Or, is there?

When an earthquake hits California, Tom makes a daring escape from prison and sets out on a mission to prove his innocence. Dodging the F.B.I. at every turn, he zeroes in on the one person who has the ability to make the truth prevail... his beloved daughter. With nowhere else to turn, Tom chooses to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to gain back his daughter's trust. But, will she jeopardize the life she has built in order to help the man she thought had betrayed her? What will it take for her to turn back the clock and let the only family she has left back into her heart? PLAYING DEAD is the third installment of Allison Brennan's highly popular Prison Break Series. With each chapter comes electrifying scenes that keep the reader on the edge of her seat. Well-executed and highly entertaining, Brennan quite deftly beats the possum at its own game.

Book Summary

Dead Man Running

Sentenced to death for crimes he didn’t commit, ex-cop Tom O’Brien is now a fugitive on the run. After fifteen years behind bars, he’s determined to prove his innocence—but first he must convince his daughter, whose testimony helped put him in prison, that he has damning evidence of a plot to frame him.

Claire is no longer the naïve young teenager who walked in to find her mother and her mother’s lover dead and her father holding the gun. She’s a successful fraud investigator who figures that everyone lies. Though Claire believes in her father’s guilt, her curiosity propels her to look into the disappearance of a law student who claimed he had proof of Tom’s innocence. But the answers Claire finds only lead to more questions and reinforce her belief that there’s no one left to trust.

Obsessed with the O’Brien case, FBI agent Mitch Bianchi befriends Claire under false pretenses, convinced that Tom is not only innocent but in grave danger—and not just from the cops. As the three race toward the truth, a murderous conspiracy tightens its noose—and Claire becomes the target of an ice-cold psychopath who will kill to protect his secrets.