The sunbaked expanse of Death Valley is a great place to visit but a bad place to die in this breathtaking thriller from acclaimed master of suspense fiction Bill Pronzini
Rick Fallon has reached the breaking point. His wife left after their son's tragic death, and Rick finds himself without purpose. He seeks out the peace and tranquility of the desert, setting up camp in Death Valley. On his fourth day there, Rick comes across an abandoned car. Inside is a woman on the brink of death, beaten and blistered by the sun.
Her name is Casey, and her young son has been kidnapped by her ex-husband. After fruitlessly searching for him for months, Casey has decided to end it all. But Rick is determined to make her mission his own, even if it means risking his life. He's been given a chance to atone for one of his greatest regrets; no amount of danger can stop him now.
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The client: a woman in peril. The case: a missing person. The hero: an investigator. The complication: thugs and secrets. MWA Grand Master Pronzini (The Crimes of Jordan Wise) has used this recipe effectively for nearly four decades, including in this highly competent, if somewhat mechanical, suspense novel set in Las Vegas and California's Mohave Desert. While camping in the desert, Rick Fallon, a corporate security officer whose marriage has finally crumbled in the wake of his son's accidental death, comes across Casey Dunbar, who's tried and failed to kill herself after months of fruitlessly searching for her young son, who's been abducted by her ex-husband. Fallon empathizes with the woman, and what follows is a good old-fashioned search-and-capture mission with all the usual Pronzini virtues: a simple yet disciplined prose style; a strong, multilayered central character; and a compelling plot that builds to a nice little closing twist. (Oct.)
Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. FROM BOOKLIST
Pronzini's latest stand-alone thriller is a prime example of the Chandleresque atmospherics and character-driven plots that have made his novels consistently entertaining. The author's landscape artistry is a main pleasure of this book: he makes the ever-changing colors of Death Valley come alive, and he skewers Las Vegas as a creature that swallows up the surrounding landscape and entombs the people within it. Hero Rick Fallon has come unmoored: his marriage has finally ended after the death of the couple's son three years previously. He visits Death Valley to recharge and stumbles upon an abandoned vehicle with a suicide note on the driver's seat. In a nice twist on the expectation that the hero will find a body, Fallon finds an almost-dead woman. Behind her suicide attempt is the husband's kidnapping of the couple's son. Fallon takes up a knight-errant role for the woman, trying to salve his own loss by finding her son. The false notes in this book come from Pronzini's instantly morphing his everyman hero (once the head of security at a druge company) into Mr. Hard-Boiled Detective. Despite this awkward grafting, this is a stylishly written, achingly melancholy tale. --Connie Fletcher --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bill Pronzini has been nominated for or won every prize offered to crime fiction writers, including the 2008 Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. It is no wonder, then, that Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine said of him: Complexity of characterization, puzzle, and theme support the case for Pronzini as the finest American detective novelist in current practice. He lives and writes in California with his wife, the crime novelist Marcia Muller.
Nick Sullivan has narrated audiobooks for over twenty years and has recorded over four hundred titles. An Audie Award winner, he is also the recipient of numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards. His TV and film credits include The Good Wife, The Affair, Bull, Boardwalk Empire, 30 Rock, Our Idiot Brother, and Private Life.
--This text refers to the audioCD edition. REVIEW
A good old-fashioned search-and-capture mission with all the usual Pronzini virtues: a simple yet disciplined prose style; a strong, multilayered central character; and a compelling plot that builds to a nice little closing twist.
-- "Publishers Weekly"
A stylishly written, achingly melancholy tale.
-- "Booklist"
A tight, twisty tale that an old pro's sure-handed way with character makes both believable and engrossing.
-- "Kirkus Reviews" --This text refers to the audioCD edition. Read more Continue reading Read less
