Amazon.co.uk Review
What all his books have in common is a growing assurance as you turn the first few pages that you're in good, honourable hands--that the author won't trick you shamelessly or go off on some tedious tangent. So a book that begins with a horrible plane explosion which rains down fire over a Massachusetts village can shift seamlessly into a jazz musician's hunt for his lost love and an executive hit-man's search for a little girl without losing a beat.
When that plane crashes over the small coastal town of Hunnicut (in a scene probably better not read during or just before a flight of your own), five-year-old Amanda Dodson--"a roundish little mixed-race girl with a quiet, thoughtful manner"--escapes from her babysitter's burning house and wanders into the woods. That's where her young mother, Carol, who works as a cocktail waitress (and does occasional sexual favours for customers), finds her after an agonising search. With Amanda is one of the plane's passengers, apparently brought back to life by the girl's formidable healing abilities. "Now they'll come after her!" Carol Dodson cries, before fleeing with the child to New York City.
In Manhattan she has a brief encounter with a grieving saxophone genius named Lonnie Blake. Captivated by Carol's resemblance to his late wife, Blake tries to find her again, but he is not the only one hunting down Carol and Amanda. Others want to capture the little girl--and exploit her amazing healing powers for profit.
In lesser hands, these ingredients might add up to nothing more than a shameless potboiler, but Klavan has powers of his own--a magic touch that humanises even the smallest characters and makes them a part of our own world. --Dick Adler
Review
Klavan's style is hard, unflinching, with a wide seam of whiplash humour running through it that sets him well apart from your regular, journeyman writer. This book rarely lets up its absorbing and hugely enjoyable pace (PUBLISHING NEWS )
A fast paced tale of redemption... an exemplary thriller from the author of TRUE CRIME (TIME OUT )
The inventive and audacious Andrew Klavan never covers the same ground twice and his latest psychological thriller is about as far as you can get from his previous bestsellers, True Crime and The Uncanny. (What all his books have in common is a growing assurance as you turn the first few pages that you're in good, honourable hands--that the author won't trick you shamelessly or go off on some tedious tangent. So a book that begins with a horrible plane expl )
OBSERVER
TIME OUT
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Book Description
*The exciting fast-paced new thriller from the bestselling author of TRUE CRIME
*For one night she was anything he wanted. Now he'd go through hell to save her...
Product Description
The coast of Maine, a clear summer's day, a 747 plunges into the sea, the witness a small child...
On a cold, lonely night in New York, Lonnie Blake, a widower and desolate jazz musician, takes comfort in the arms of Carol, a beautiful woman who has flung herself into his doorway to escape an unknown assailant. For that one night, Carol has given everything Blake has wanted: sex, companionship and, above all, compassion. In the morning she is gone, leaving no clues, just emptiness and longing. Blake cannot forget her for Carol has got under his skin and stirred his soul. He also knows she is deeply troubled, and makes it his business to find out why. The answer is not so simple, for it is not Carol who is in danger but her three year old daughter, Amanda, an ordinary, sweet-faced, dimpled child. Amanda has a gift, an extraordinary ability that Carol is desperate to hide. But others are not so discerning, and will stop at nothing until they get what they want, whatever the consequences...
Fast, furious, tightly plotted and brilliantly drawn, this is a superb thriller, up with the very best, from the author of the award winning TRUE CRIME.
