Saving Calypso

In the tantalizing prologue of this twisty thriller from Church (Head First), the enigmatic Calypso Swale decides to leave her home for the second time in six months after she spots ads describing her as a “missing heiress” in local newspapers and some men watching her on the street. Calypso drives from San Francisco to the Sierra National Forest, where she pushes her car off a mountain road to create the illusion that she died in an accident. Flash forward four years. In Kenya, Grieg Washburn learns that his father, Ray, has been blown up by a bomb in Syria. At the reading of Ray’s will, a lawyer reminds Grieg that he was convicted of vehicular manslaughter five years earlier, but thanks to Ray cutting a deal with the judge, he served only probation instead of prison time. While driving drunk, Grieg collided with another car, killing Calypso’s mother and seriously injuring her father. After Calypso visited her father in the hospital, he warned her to run, triggering her life as a fugitive. Readers will keep turning the pages to see what brings Calypso and Grieg together in the present day. Lisa Unger fans will be pleased. (Self-published)