Diary of a Succubus

A beautiful, deadly woman moves through New York with a single supernatural gift: she can kill a man with a kiss. Part of James Patterson's BookShots line of lightning-fast novellas, this short, propulsive story is told from the predator's own point of view as she stalks the city's most ruthless men.

Her latest mark is Mark Norman Harper, a Forbes-listed investor and reality-television fixture who has crushed dreamers and done far worse, the kind of target whose downfall feels like justice rather than murder.

As she closes in, the line between seduction and vengeance blurs, and the diary form pulls the reader into the intimate, unsettling logic of a killer who believes her victims deserve their fate. Co-written with Edgar-nominated novelist Derek Nikitas, it pairs Patterson's signature speed with a darker, paranormal-thriller edge.

Built to be read in a single sitting, the story trades depth for momentum, offering a compact tale of glamour, appetite, and lethal seduction dressed up as romance.