A terrifying woman-in-jeopardy plot propels Gardner's latest thriller, in which child advocate and PI Lorraine "Rainie" Conner's fate hangs in the balance. Rainie, a recovering alcoholic with a painful past (who previously appeared in Gardner's The Third Victim
, The Next Accident
and The Killing Hour
) is kidnapped from her parked car one night in coastal Oregon. The key players converge on the town of Bakersville to solve the mystery of her disappearance: Rainie's husband, Quincy, a semiretired FBI profiler whose anguish over Rainie undercuts his high-level experience with kidnappers; Quincy's daughter, Kimberley, a rising star in the FBI who flies in from Atlanta; Oregon State Police Sgt. Det. Carlton Kincaid; local sheriff Shelly Atkins; and abrasive federal agent Candi Rodriguez, who specializes in hostage negotiation. Gardner suspensefully intercuts the complicated maneuvering of this bickering team with graphic scenes of Rainie bravely struggling with her violent, sadistic captor. When the rescuers make a misstep, he raises the stakes by snatching a troubled seven-year-old foster child named Dougie, who's one of Rainie's cases. The cat-and-mouse intensifies, as does the mystery of the kidnapper's identity. Sympathetic characters, a strong sense of place and terrific plotting distinguish Gardner's new thriller. (Jan. 31)
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Reviewed on: 11/21/2005
Release date: 01/01/2006
Genre: Fiction
Hardcover - 342 pages - 9780553804317
Open Ebook - 290 pages - 9780553902280
Paperback - 506 pages - 9782253127048
Hardcover - 378 pages - 9780752878089
Downloadable Audio - 1 pages - 9780739346365
Paperback - 547 pages - 9780739327050
Hardcover - 547 pages - 9780739325858
Mass Market Paperbound - 451 pages - 9780553588071
Paperback - 378 pages - 9781409117407