Book 1 of Sam Capra
Language: English
FIC031000 Fiction General Fiction Intelligence Officers Kidnapping Mystery Fiction Suspense Suspense Fiction Thriller Thrillers United States - Officials and employees
Publisher: Grand Central
Published: Jan 1, 2010
Description:
"If you knew this was our final day together, what would you say to me?"
"Anything but good-bye. I can't ever say good-bye to you."
ADRENALINE
Sam Capra is living the life of his dreams.
He's a brilliant young CIA agent, stationed in London. His wife Lucy is seven months pregnant with their first child. They have a wonderful home, and are deeply in love.
They have everything they could hope for...until they lose it all in one horrifying moment.
On a bright, sunny day, Sam receives a call from Lucy while he's at work. She tells him to leave the building immediately. He does...just before it explodes, killing everyone inside. Lucy vanishes, and Sam wakes up in a prison cell. As the lone survivor of the attack, he is branded by the CIA as a murderer and a traitor.
Escaping from the agency, Sam launches into a desperate hunt to save his kidnapped wife and child, and to reveal the unknown enemy who has set him up and stolen his family. But the destruction of Sam's life was only step on in an extraordinary plot-and now Sam must become a new kind of hero.
Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best Books of the Month, July 2011 : CIA agent, Sam Capra, is about to have an extremely bad morning. We’re not talking about I-just-spilled-coffee-on-my-chinos bad. We’re talking about terrorists-bombed-my-office-and-kidnapped-my-wife bad. Sam is in the middle of an important meeting—he’s been closing in on the CIA’s most important target—when he’s interrupted by an urgent call from his pregnant wife, Lucy. There’s panic in her voice. “Meet me outside now,” she begs. In the street, Sam sees Lucy in a silver grey sedan with a strange man in the driver’s seat. Then a blast hits. In a flash, all of Sam’s colleagues are dead. Lucy’s gone. Sam’s the only survivor. And we’re only on page twelve. What follows is a breakneck thriller that delivers on the promise of its title. Adrenaline does indeed get the heart pumping with an exhilarating pace, creatively choreographed action, and intrigue that routinely compels you to read the proverbial “one more chapter.” But Sam Capra remains its most memorable asset. In his quest to find his family, Capra becomes the best kind of hero, one who’s highly capable at kicking ass, but who's also imbued with a large amount of heart, which makes him worth rooting for book after book. Fortunately, Jeff Abbott has promised us more.-- Shane Hansanuwat
"If you knew this was our final day together, what would you say to me?"
"Anything but good-bye. I can't ever say good-bye to you."
ADRENALINE
Sam Capra is living the life of his dreams.
He's a brilliant young CIA agent, stationed in London. His wife Lucy is seven months pregnant with their first child. They have a wonderful home, and are deeply in love.
They have everything they could hope for...until they lose it all in one horrifying moment.
On a bright, sunny day, Sam receives a call from Lucy while he's at work. She tells him to leave the building immediately. He does...just before it explodes, killing everyone inside. Lucy vanishes, and Sam wakes up in a prison cell. As the lone survivor of the attack, he is branded by the CIA as a murderer and a traitor.
Escaping from the agency, Sam launches into a desperate hunt to save his kidnapped wife and child, and to reveal the unknown enemy who has set him up and stolen his family. But the destruction of Sam's life was only step on in an extraordinary plot-and now Sam must become a new kind of hero.
Author One-on-One: Jeff Abbott and Harlan Coben
In this Amazon.com exclusive, author Jeff Abbott is interviewed by thriller writer Harlan Coben about Adrenaline , characters with dark secrets, and how films influence the writing process.
Harlan Coben: Let's get right to it. You’ve created a new, iconic (or soon-to-be iconic) character in Sam Capra with the plan to turn this into a series: Why?
Jeff Abbott: My last four novels were standalone thrillers, but I had readers asking me every time if the main characters in those books would launch a series. So I decided I wanted to take what I'd learned in writing standalones--interesting (I hope) characters and lots of action and high emotional stakes--and apply it to a series. Sam Capra is a bit different from other suspense series heroes: he's younger (at 26), he's a husband and about-to-be father, and he's an ex-spy who can now operate free of agency rules and find his own dangers and challenges.
Harlan Coben: Did you choose to have Sam own bars just so you could travel the world and call it research? Because if you did, you're an evil genius and I want in.
Jeff Abbott: Well, an ex-spy needs a job, and I thought: what if Sam owned a lot of bars around the world? He could be like a globetrotting Rick Blaine, from Casablanca. I can instantly put Sam anywhere in the world, and I can introduce an interesting new cast in each book--or I can revisit characters and settings from earlier books. Bars are perfect places for lives to collide and intrigue to arise. And bars give us a way to connect personally, face to face, not in the digital way we all seem to find each other now. Unexpectedly cool: my readers sent me over thirty suggestions when I asked them, via my blog, to recommend their favorite London bars, and I visited several of those fine establishments. A hardy band from my British publisher bravely accompanied me on this quest. It's great how everyone volunteers to help me with this kind of research.
Harlan Coben: On the surface, Adrenaline (apt title, by the way) may be an international spy thriller--but what sets it apart, methinks, is that it is really a novel about family. You agree?
Jeff Abbott: You and I have always written about family and the secrets they hold. I know we are both very close to our families, and there was a long stretch in crime fiction where it seemed to be required that the main character be alienated from family. At the beginning of Adrenaline , Sam's seven-months pregnant wife vanishes, and Sam is accused of being a traitor and has to go on the run to find her. All he wants is his family back, and to know the truth about his wife: did she betray him, or was she taken from him? He needs to know if his family is based on love or on a lie. There is no greater emotional dynamite than family.
Harlan Coben: You know I love the partner in series fiction--Sherlock-Watson, Batman-Robin, Spenser-Hawk-- and you gave Sam a very strong one in Mila. She's, um, intense. Can you fill us in?
Jeff Abbott: So often the partner is the best friend to the hero--but Sam knows virtually nothing about Mila except what whisky she drinks and that she can help him find his family. She's tough and smart but she seems very alone in the world. A big part of the series will be finding out about her and her past; I love writing her scenes, for me it's often like a blurred photograph slowly coming into focus.
Harlan Coben: Because I’m always interested in the answer, let’s do the writer's chicken-egg question--which comes first, characters or plot?
Jeff Abbott: Usually for me, it's character, because every decision the characters make drives the plot. But if I think of an interesting situation first, a 'what if' that grabs me, and then can people it with characters I want to know more about, then that's fine, too. I don't think it always has to be one before the other.
Harlan Coben: You and I love to discuss (argue?) movies. We are often asked about literary influences, so let me turn that around a bit. Do films ever influence your writing?
Jeff Abbott: I never imagine the books as films, but I do tend to build the story in three acts, the way most movies are structured. If I get stuck on a book, I like to watch a good movie: a Hitchcock film, or a classic suspense film like Marathon Man or Chinatown. The story can be vastly different from what I'm writing, but just seeing the strong structure underlying the movie's story seems to clear my head and then I'm ready to go back to work.
Review
"This is a wonderful book and the start of one of the most exciting new series I've had the privilege to read. Jeff Abbott has been one of my favorite writers for more than a decade and Sam Capra is now on my short list of characters I would follow anywhere. Adrenaline provides the high-octane pace one expects from a spy thriller, while grounding the action with a protagonist that anyone can root for. Sam Capra is the boy next door -- assuming the boy next door to you is a CIA-trained agent who will do whatever is necessary to find and protect his loved ones."―Laura Lippman
"Adrenaline has everything-relentless action, mind-bending intrigue, and twists and turns you won't see coming. It's exhilarating, and confirms Jeff Abbott as one of the best thriller writers of our time."―Harlan Coben
" Adrenaline lives up to its name. Pure thriller in pace, but Abbott manages to keep the book's heart in the right place. The characters aren't cardboard action figures, but people under incredible stresses and strains. I read it in a big gulp."―Charlaine Harris
"Engaging from the first paragraph, terrifying from the second page, ADREANLINE accomplishes what most modern thrillers can't. It makes us care about its characters even while we're speeding headlong down the ingenious Rabbit Hole of its plot. Well done!"―Eric Van Lustbader
"I am, and always have been, a devoted Jeff Abbott fan. Adrenaline takes him to a whole new level. Sam Capra is the perfect hero-tough, smart, pure of heart, and hard to kill. And Adrenaline is the perfect thriller. Taut and edgy, with breakneck pacing and perfect plotting, it's a breathless race from the shocking, heart-wrenching opening sequence to the stunning conclusion. Jeff Abbott is a master, and Adrenaline is his best book yet."―Lisa Unger, NYT bestselling author of Fragile
"A near-perfect thriller... Fans of Harlan Coben, Lee Child, Joseph Finder, or John Grisham-anyone who enjoys a wild ride on a bumpy road-can cheer the arrival of our latest master of the fine art of the page-turner. Highly recommended."―Booklist
" Panic is Jeff Abbott's best novel yet...an instant classic immediately full of questions-who, what, why, how-that have answers you won't see coming."―Lee Child
"Panic is a ride down the roaring rapids. Jeff Abbott has put together a hell of a page turner."―Michael Connelly
About the Author
Jeff Abbott is the New York Times bestselling author of fourteen novels. He is the winner of an International Thriller Writers Award (for the Sam Capra thriller The Last Minute) and is a three-time nominee for the Edgar award. He lives in Austin with his family. You can visit his website at www.JeffAbbott.com.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Adrenaline
By Abbott, Jeff
Grand Central Publishing
Copyright © 2011 Abbott, Jeff
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9780446575171
PART ONE
NOVEMBER 14–APRIL 10
“In the flux that defines the world of the illegal, beginnings are often endings and vice versa… Trillions of dollars move around the world outside of legal channels… They ruin the lives of some and create vast empires of profit for others.”
—Carolyn Nordstrom, Global Outlaws
1
ONCE MY WIFE ASKED ME: if you knew this was our final day together, what would you say to me?
We’d been married for all of a year. We were lying in bed, watching the sun begin to shine through the heavy curtains, and I answered her with the truth: anything but good-bye. I can’t ever say good-bye to you.
Two years later, that final day started as most of my days did. Up at five, I drove and parked near the tube station at Vauxhall. I like to use the public housing a few blocks away for my little adventures.
I started the run with a long warm-up in the open, exposed concrete courtyard of the old public building, slow-running in place, gathering pace, elevating my body temperature by a few critical degrees, then took off. You want your muscles and ligaments hot. A brick wall lay directly ahead of me, three feet taller than me. I hit it with a step that launched me upward, my fingers closing on the edge of its top. I pulled myself up with one fluid movement I’d practiced a thousand times before. No hard breathing, no creaking of joints. I tried to move in silence. Silence shows that you’re in control. Over the edge of the wall, running across the ground, and then a vault over a much shorter wall, one-handed, my legs clearing the bricks.
Into the main building. A stairwell, smelling of piss and decorated with a finger of black-and-white graffiti, lay ahead of me. I hit the painted wall with my left foot in a careful jump, using the energy to launch me rightward to the railing at the turn of the stair. A hard move where I’d fallen before, but today, sweet, I landed with care onto the railing, holding my balance, heart pounding, mind calm. Adrenaline thump. I jumped from the railing to an extended steel bar that stretched into the construction site, used the momentum to swing myself over to a gutted floor. The building was being torn apart and redone. I would damage nothing, leave no sign of passage. I might be a trespasser, but I’m not a jerk. I ran to the opposite side of the floor, launched into the air, caught another bar of steel, swung, let go, and hit the ground in a careful roll. The energy from the fall spread across my back and butt rather than jamming in my knees, and I was up and running again, back into the building, looking for a new, more efficient way to enter its spaces. Parkour, the art of moving, gets my adrenaline going while, at the same time, a slow calm creeps over me. Make a misstep and I fall down the brick walls. It is exhilarating and settling all at once.
I made another three passes through the building’s interesting web of space—broken floors, gaping stairwells, equipment—using a mix of runs, vaults, jumps, and drops to find the line—the simplest and most straightforward path through the half-ruined walls, the low brick rises, the empty staircases. Energy burned my muscles, my heart pounded, but the whole time I tried to maintain a distinct and separate calm. Find the line, always the line. Around me, in the distance, I could hear traffic beginning to build, the sky lightening for the new day.
People think that what the British call council housing is an eyesore. It’s all in how you look at it. To a parkour runner the old square buildings are beautiful. Full of planes and walls to run up and bounce off, railings and ledges to walk and jump from, neighbors who don’t call the police at the merest noise.
The last route, I dropped from the second story to the first, grabbing a bar, swinging, letting go in a controlled fall.
“Hey!” a voice yelled at me as I slammed through the air. I hit, rolled, let the energy of impact bleed nicely through my shoulders and bottom. I ended up on my feet and took three steps and stopped.
Not a guard, a teenager, watching me. A morning cigarette perched on his lip. “How do you do that, man?”
“Practice,” I said. “Long, boring hours of practice.”
“Like a spider,” he said, smiling. “My mum and I been watching. She wanted to call the Old Bill. I said no.”
“Thank you.” I really didn’t need the police in my life. Time to find a new place to practice. I waved at my benefactor and decided to cool down with a long, straightforward run. Twenty minutes in a long, looping circle, a normal jogger out for his paces, and I jumped back into my car to drive home. Most Americans living in London don’t have cars. You don’t need them.
I have one for security.
I headed up to our apartment off Charlotte Street, not far from the British Museum. I slipped inside, trying to be quiet, hoping that Lucy was still asleep.
She was up, drinking juice at the small kitchen table, frowning at an open laptop. She glanced at me.
“Good morning, monkey,” she said, putting her gaze back to the laptop. “Out making mischief?”
I’d forgotten to take off the hand coverings I wore to protect my palms on the parkour runs. I could hear the disappointment in her voice.
“Hi.”
“You didn’t fall off a building,” she said.
“No, Lucy.” I poured a glass of juice.
“What a relief. When you miss grabbing the edge of a wall and plummet to an untimely end, I can tell the baby you died getting your morning fix of crazy.”
“The walls aren’t high. I don’t take stupid chances.” Defensive.
“When I’m expecting, Sam, any chance is a stupid one.”
“Sorry. Mostly it was a normal jog.” I took off the palm protectors, stuffed them in my pocket. I went to the fridge and found a cold bottle of water. I took refuge in it, drinking slowly and steadily. Shower, coffee, then a long day at the office. The adrenaline rush was gone for the day.
“Sam?”
“Yeah?”
“I love you. I want you to know that.”
“I know that. I love you, too.” I turned from the refrigerator, looked at her. She was still studying her laptop, her hand perched on the soft fullness of her belly. The baby was seven months along, and I suppose, with the imminence of parenthood, Lucy and I were both more serious these days. Well, she was. I hadn’t yet been able to give up parkour runs, interspersed with my regular miles.
“I wonder if you might find a less dangerous hobby.”
“My job is more dangerous than my hobby.”
“Don’t joke,” she said. Now she looked at me. In her morning rumple, she was beautiful to me, brown hair with auburn highlights, serious brown eyes, a heart-shaped face with a full, red mouth. I loved her eyes the most. “I know you can do your job better than anyone. I’m scared you’ll take a stupid fall doing these runs. I don’t need you with a broken neck with a baby about to be born.”
“Okay. I’ll learn golf.”
She made a face that told me she didn’t take my promise seriously. But she said, “Thank you. Remember, tonight we have dinner with the Carstairs and the Johnsons.”
I smiled. They were her friends, not mine, but they were all nice people, and I knew our regular dinners out in London would become much rarer once the baby arrived. And maybe they knew a golf instructor. “Okay, I’ll be home by five, then.”
“We’re meeting them at six at the tapas bar in Shoreditch. Do you have a big morning?”
“A PowerPoint-heavy one,” I said. “Briefings all day with Brandon and the suits from back home.” I looked at her as she stood to stretch, her hands on the swell of her belly. “But I could cancel. Go to the doctor’s with you.”
“No.”
“Save me from the PowerPoint. Let me go with you and The Bundle.” We kept skirting the discussion of names, so I’d given our imminent child a pseudonym.
“The Bundle.” She patted the top of her swell.
“Actually, I may have to meet you at the restaurant. I might have to go drink a quick pint with the suits after the meetings.”
She laughed and smiled and said, “Oh, such a tough job you have.”
I thought, thank God I don’t have my parents’ marriage. Lucy and I didn’t fight, didn’t glare, didn’t inflict long, painful silences.
“Go and bar-hop without your pregnant wife.” She smiled and closed her laptop. “But not quite yet.”
She came to me and slid her hands up my back. Pregnant women are full of surprises; it’s like living with a breeze that can’t settle on its direction. I loved it. She kissed me with a surprising hunger, almost a ferocity, her belly big between us.
“I’m hot and sweaty and gross,” I said. “I’m a yucky husband.”
“Yes,” she said. “Yes, you are, monkey. And I’m enormous.”
“Yes,” I said. “Yes, you are.” And I kissed her.
When we were done, the sweetest start to that final day, I made us a breakfast of toast, coffee, and juice, then showered, dressed, and went to our office. Before I walked out, I looked back at her, at the breakfast table, and I said, “I love you,” and she said, “I love you.”
Famous last words.
Continues...
Excerpted from Adrenaline by Abbott, Jeff Copyright © 2011 by Abbott, Jeff. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best Books of the Month, July 2011: CIA agent, Sam Capra, is about to have an extremely bad morning. We’re not talking about I-just-spilled-coffee-on-my-chinos bad. We’re talking about terrorists-bombed-my-office-and-kidnapped-my-wife bad. Sam is in the middle of an important meeting—he’s been closing in on the CIA’s most important target—when he’s interrupted by an urgent call from his pregnant wife, Lucy. There’s panic in her voice. “Meet me outside now,” she begs. In the street, Sam sees Lucy in a silver grey sedan with a strange man in the driver’s seat. Then a blast hits. In a flash, all of Sam’s colleagues are dead. Lucy’s gone. Sam’s the only survivor. And we’re only on page twelve. What follows is a breakneck thriller that delivers on the promise of its title. Adrenaline does indeed get the heart pumping with an exhilarating pace, creatively choreographed action, and intrigue that routinely compels you to read the proverbial “one more chapter.” But Sam Capra remains its most memorable asset. In his quest to find his family, Capra becomes the best kind of hero, one who’s highly capable at kicking ass, but who's also imbued with a large amount of heart, which makes him worth rooting for book after book. Fortunately, Jeff Abbott has promised us more.--_Shane Hansanuwat_ "If you knew this was our final day together, what would you say to me?"
"Anything but good-bye. I can't ever say good-bye to you." ADRENALINE Sam Capra is living the life of his dreams.
He's a brilliant young CIA agent, stationed in London. His wife Lucy is seven months pregnant with their first child. They have a wonderful home, and are deeply in love.
They have everything they could hope for...until they lose it all in one horrifying moment.
On a bright, sunny day, Sam receives a call from Lucy while he's at work. She tells him to leave the building immediately. He does...just before it explodes, killing everyone inside. Lucy vanishes, and Sam wakes up in a prison cell. As the lone survivor of the attack, he is branded by the CIA as a murderer and a traitor.
Escaping from the agency, Sam launches into a desperate hunt to save his kidnapped wife and child, and to reveal the unknown enemy who has set him up and stolen his family. But the destruction of Sam's life was only step on in an extraordinary plot-and now Sam must become a new kind of hero.
Author One-on-One: Jeff Abbott and Harlan Coben
In this Amazon.com exclusive, author Jeff Abbott is interviewed by thriller writer Harlan Coben about Adrenaline, characters with dark secrets, and how films influence the writing process.
Harlan Coben: Let's get right to it. You’ve created a new, iconic (or soon-to-be iconic) character in Sam Capra with the plan to turn this into a series: Why?
Jeff Abbott: My last four novels were standalone thrillers, but I had readers asking me every time if the main characters in those books would launch a series. So I decided I wanted to take what I'd learned in writing standalones--interesting (I hope) characters and lots of action and high emotional stakes--and apply it to a series. Sam Capra is a bit different from other suspense series heroes: he's younger (at 26), he's a husband and about-to-be father, and he's an ex-spy who can now operate free of agency rules and find his own dangers and challenges.
Harlan Coben: Did you choose to have Sam own bars just so you could travel the world and call it research? Because if you did, you're an evil genius and I want in.
Jeff Abbott: Well, an ex-spy needs a job, and I thought: what if Sam owned a lot of bars around the world? He could be like a globetrotting Rick Blaine, from Casablanca. I can instantly put Sam anywhere in the world, and I can introduce an interesting new cast in each book--or I can revisit characters and settings from earlier books. Bars are perfect places for lives to collide and intrigue to arise. And bars give us a way to connect personally, face to face, not in the digital way we all seem to find each other now. Unexpectedly cool: my readers sent me over thirty suggestions when I asked them, via my blog, to recommend their favorite London bars, and I visited several of those fine establishments. A hardy band from my British publisher bravely accompanied me on this quest. It's great how everyone volunteers to help me with this kind of research.
Harlan Coben: On the surface, Adrenaline (apt title, by the way) may be an international spy thriller--but what sets it apart, methinks, is that it is really a novel about family. You agree?
Jeff Abbott: You and I have always written about family and the secrets they hold. I know we are both very close to our families, and there was a long stretch in crime fiction where it seemed to be required that the main character be alienated from family. At the beginning of Adrenaline, Sam's seven-months pregnant wife vanishes, and Sam is accused of being a traitor and has to go on the run to find her. All he wants is his family back, and to know the truth about his wife: did she betray him, or was she taken from him? He needs to know if his family is based on love or on a lie. There is no greater emotional dynamite than family.
Harlan Coben: You know I love the partner in series fiction--Sherlock-Watson, Batman-Robin, Spenser-Hawk-- and you gave Sam a very strong one in Mila. She's, um, intense. Can you fill us in?
Jeff Abbott: So often the partner is the best friend to the hero--but Sam knows virtually nothing about Mila except what whisky she drinks and that she can help him find his family. She's tough and smart but she seems very alone in the world. A big part of the series will be finding out about her and her past; I love writing her scenes, for me it's often like a blurred photograph slowly coming into focus.
Harlan Coben: Because I’m always interested in the answer, let’s do the writer's chicken-egg question--which comes first, characters or plot?
Jeff Abbott: Usually for me, it's character, because every decision the characters make drives the plot. But if I think of an interesting situation first, a 'what if' that grabs me, and then can people it with characters I want to know more about, then that's fine, too. I don't think it always has to be one before the other.
Harlan Coben: You and I love to discuss (argue?) movies. We are often asked about literary influences, so let me turn that around a bit. Do films ever influence your writing?
Jeff Abbott: I never imagine the books as films, but I do tend to build the story in three acts, the way most movies are structured. If I get stuck on a book, I like to watch a good movie: a Hitchcock film, or a classic suspense film like Marathon Man or Chinatown. The story can be vastly different from what I'm writing, but just seeing the strong structure underlying the movie's story seems to clear my head and then I'm ready to go back to work.
Review
"This is a wonderful book and the start of one of the most exciting new series I've had the privilege to read. Jeff Abbott has been one of my favorite writers for more than a decade and Sam Capra is now on my short list of characters I would follow anywhere. Adrenaline provides the high-octane pace one expects from a spy thriller, while grounding the action with a protagonist that anyone can root for. Sam Capra is the boy next door -- assuming the boy next door to you is a CIA-trained agent who will do whatever is necessary to find and protect his loved ones." (Laura Lippman )
"Adrenaline has everything-relentless action, mind-bending intrigue, and twists and turns you won't see coming. It's exhilarating, and confirms Jeff Abbott as one of the best thriller writers of our time." (Harlan Coben )
"_Adrenaline_ lives up to its name. Pure thriller in pace, but Abbott manages to keep the book's heart in the right place. The characters aren't cardboard action figures, but people under incredible stresses and strains. I read it in a big gulp." (Charlaine Harris )
"Engaging from the first paragraph, terrifying from the second page, ADREANLINE accomplishes what most modern thrillers can't. It makes us care about its characters even while we're speeding headlong down the ingenious Rabbit Hole of its plot. Well done!" (Eric Van Lustbader )
"I am, and always have been, a devoted Jeff Abbott fan. Adrenaline takes him to a whole new level. Sam Capra is the perfect hero-tough, smart, pure of heart, and hard to kill. And Adrenaline is the perfect thriller. Taut and edgy, with breakneck pacing and perfect plotting, it's a breathless race from the shocking, heart-wrenching opening sequence to the stunning conclusion. Jeff Abbott is a master, and Adrenaline is his best book yet." (Lisa Unger, NYT bestselling author of Fragile )
"A near-perfect thriller... Fans of Harlan Coben, Lee Child, Joseph Finder, or John Grisham-anyone who enjoys a wild ride on a bumpy road-can cheer the arrival of our latest master of the fine art of the page-turner. Highly recommended." (Booklist )
"_Panic_ is Jeff Abbott's best novel yet...an instant classic immediately full of questions-who, what, why, how-that have answers you won't see coming." (Lee Child )
"Panic is a ride down the roaring rapids. Jeff Abbott has put together a hell of a page turner." (Michael Connelly )