cover image DANGER ZONE

DANGER ZONE

Shirley Palmer, . . Mira, $23.95 (304pp) ISBN 978-1-55166-943-4

Palmer's hardcover debut (after A Veiled Journey and Lioness, published under the pseudonym Nell Brien) is a suspense thriller about a suburban family whose domestic bliss is destroyed by an unexpected burst of violence. Maggie Cady lives in New Orleans with her husband, Sam, an ex-cop, their four-year-old son, Jimmy, and dog Max. (Cape Fear fans, take note.) One Sunday morning the windows are shattered and the walls shudder with the thud of gunfire. When the smoke clears, Max lies dead and Jimmy is gone—kidnapped. The police are, as usual, baffled. Maggie leaves a note for her husband: "Sam, I love you. Don't follow me. I have gone to get Jimmy." She then returns to New York, the "danger zone" of her youth that she thought she'd left behind. Sam, meanwhile, follows a lead and finds himself involved in a shoot-out in which three men are killed. Hunted by the FBI for the murders, he tracks his wife to Manhattan, only to discover that the woman he loves is the daughter of a notorious crime family. Palmer dishes out the violence with gusto; the level of carnage is well up to standard. With the novel's headlong pace, there's little time to develop characters or instill much atmosphere, but the frenetic tempo and myriad plot twists more than compensate. Even if Palmer arrives at a familiar (and foreseeable) conclusion, getting there is more than half the fun. Author tour. (Oct.)