The Never List

Less could have been more in Zan’s riveting but flawed debut, a psychological thriller. A decade after Sarah Farber helped convict Jack Derber, a University of Oregon psychology professor, for keeping her, along with her best friend Jennifer and two other college-age girls, shackled and naked in the cellar of a remote cabin for almost three years, in between bouts of torture, Sarah leads a hermetic existence as an accountant with a new identity in New York City. Meanwhile, Derber manages to send creepy letters to Sarah and his other former captives via the FBI while imprisoned. With Derber’s first parole hearing looming, Sarah resolves to fly cross-country and attempt to follow the clues in these missives to find evidence that might put the sadist away for good. As Sarah and the other three victims probe Derber’s ties to a cultlike church that his wife attends, Zan delivers harrowing, if often far-fetched, and not for the faint-hearted, action. 5-city author tour. Agent: Alexandra Machinist, Janklow & Nesbit Associates. (July)