Long after you close David Corbett's Do They Know I'm Running? (Ballantine, Mar.), you'll be thinking about 18-year-old Roque Montalvo, a good kid who agrees to get his deported uncle back to his California family. With little money and plenty of pressure, how can he get the job done? Relying on the criminal gangs that control the human smuggling route from El Salvador through Guatemala and Mexico to the U.S., Roque learns too late that he'll also be smuggling a possible terrorist and a very young beauty who has been promised to a drug lord. You aren't going to sleep until you see if Roque can successfully cross all the borders without losing his charges and his soul. Both gritty and sensitive, this amazing novel is a page-turner and a literate gem. Although all of Corbett's hard-hitting yet sensitive thrillers deal with important issues, he never preaches—no wonder other authors love to read his work. Do They Know I'm Running? is his best yet.