First published 2013
Gabriela stares at her front door as it swings open. She expects negotiators or FBI agents. Instead, the kidnapper steps inside, weapon drawn. Two days earlier, her world was ordinary. Then strangers took her six-year-old daughter. The kidnappers demand half a million dollars and a document called the October List. Gabriela has thirty hours to deliver both, or her child dies. She knows nothing about this mysterious list. She has no idea where to find it or what it contains. The clock runs down as she searches desperately through a web of secrets and lies. Deaver structures this thriller in reverse chronology, beginning with the climactic confrontation and working backward to reveal how Gabriela's nightmare began. Each chapter peels away another layer of the mystery while the tension builds in an unusual direction. The story moves from crisis to cause, showing the reader what happened while revealing why it happened. At its heart, this is a story about a mother's fierce love for her child and the lengths she will go to bring her daughter home safely.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, action
Vibes: dark, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: race-against-time, unreliable-narrator
312 pages · Hardcover · Grand Central Publishing
Content warnings: kidnapping