The Ascent

The knockout first novel from San Francisco police sergeant Plantinga (Police Craft) unfolds during a deadly breach at a maximum-security prison. Kurt Argento is a former Detroit cop driving cross country to see the Pacific Ocean when he’s mistakenly arrested in a Missouri town and, due to a plumbing issue at the local jail and the Fourth of July preceding his court date, held over the long weekend in a nearby maximum-security facility. Shortly after he arrives, the prison’s security system crashes during a visit from the governor’s daughter, Julie Wakefield, and all inmates are released from their cells. Always a cop, Argento leads a small team of prison staff and accompanying civilians in guiding Julie up six floors of bloody chaos to their potential rescue on the roof. Plantinga maintains a breakneck pace from start to finish, with end-of-chapter cliffhangers and a devilish narrative structure in which each floor of the prison poses a different and more harrowing threat than the last. Along the way, the tension Plantinga generates between Argento’s Jack Reacher–level self-confidence and criminology major Julie’s more cerebral worldview exerts an irresistible pull. Once readers catch their breath, they’ll be clamoring for more from this rising star. Agent: Caitlin Blasdell, Liza Dawson Assoc. (Jan.)