What’s the worst thing that can happen to an author on a book tour—a talk-show host who can’t remember your name? Bedbugs in your hotel room? How about being handcuffed and thrown in the back of a police car? That’s exactly what happened to New York Times bestselling author Andrew Gross while on tour in 2010 for Reckless. Driving to an appearance at Murder by the Book in Houston, he was pulled over for making an illegal U-turn, and what should have been a routine traffic stop turned into a terrifying interrogation. Luckily, Gross was let go with a warning—and in enough time to make it to Murder by the Book—but the experience left him thinking about how even the most fortunate of lives can be destroyed in an instant. And how that experience might just become his next novel.

In 15 Seconds (Morrow, June), plastic surgeon Dr. Henry Steadman is on his way to a medical conference when he’s stopped for a minor traffic violation. While the ticket is being written, a blue sedan appears and the driver shoots the police officer dead, speeding away quickly enough that Steadman becomes the chief suspect in the murder. Now a wanted man on the run, Steadman soon realizes he’s the target of a sinister plot seeking revenge. The stakes get even higher as Steadman’s family is put in danger. Unable to go to the police to clear his name, he must untangle the clues and figure out who is out to get him. “Andy Gross is already known for his bestselling page-turners,” says HarperCollins v-p and executive editor Henry Ferris, “but with 15 Seconds he ratchets up the stakes and takes his readers on a nonstop thrill ride that will grow his readership by the thousands and thousands.”

You can meet Andrew Gross and pick up a signed copy of 15 Seconds today, 10:30–11:30 a.m., at Table 5 in the autographing area.