When the woman you love may be dead, or worse - unknowable - obsession takes over.

A young woman is found dead in her Manhattan apartment. In the aftermath, the men who knew her begin to tell their stories: a possessive mentor, a devoted fiancé, a cynical columnist. At the centre of it all is Laura: dazzling, ambitious and impossible to pin down. As Detective Mark McPherson pieces together her life, he finds himself drawn not just to the crime, but to the woman she seemed to be....

BRIEF ENCOUNTERS: classic novellas and captivating stories, to be read in a single sitting or savoured over days