Kilgore follows his enigmatic debut, Who Is Shayla Hacker?
(2007), with a melodramatic mystery that readers are likely to find equally perplexing. More than a decade after the disappearance of Sam Mackie's first son, Riley, a strange man tries to kidnap Sam's second son, Daniel, from the Mackies' house in a generic American town. A deliveryman's chance arrival causes the kidnapper to flee, but not before he jabs something sharp into grade-schooler Daniel's neck. Daniel is soon in the hospital, ill with what turns out to be radiation poisoning. A bloody attempt to seize Daniel in the hospital fails. In his increasingly frantic efforts to save Daniel, Sam chases down military officials, sneaks into his own office after hours, gets shot and signs Daniel over to his boss. As the story veers further into the absurd, Sam discovers an awful truth about Riley's fate, which leads to a far-fetched rescue attempt in the Republic of Congo. (July)
