Part of Quinn & Costa
First published 2027
Matt Costa's thirteen-year-old neighbor vanishes overnight. When she turns up in a diner twenty-four hours later, drugged but physically unharmed, Matt expects relief. He gets a typewritten note instead. Someone wants the address of Marie Harding, whose father Matt helped put away. That father is Conrad James, a contract killer and fixer, and he is out of prison. Matt once helped Marie's mother take her into hiding. Conrad knows that. The missing girl was never the point. She was a message. Matt pulls in the full Mobile Response Team, including Kara Quinn, who is out of state untangling a surprise encounter with her own con artist father. Before Kara can get back to Virginia, a second girl disappears. Conrad is not waiting. He kills a stranger to sharpen the terms: children stay safe, adults do not. The team works to corner Conrad without surrendering Marie's location, but Conrad keeps moving and the body count climbs. Matt and Kara are running out of time to stop him before more people die protecting a secret only a few of them know.
Genres: suspense, mystery, crime, adult-fiction, thriller
Vibes: dark, fast-paced, gritty, high-stakes, suspenseful
Tropes: forced-proximity, found-family, high-stakes-rescue
Setting: Virginia, diner
400 pages · Hardcover · Hanover Square Press
Content warnings: kidnapping, murder, violence