In this potboiler, undercover FBI agent Lee Coburn is framed for a brutal multiple murder, which he witnessed and escaped. Lee pursues his original investigation while on the run, trying to identify the local kingpin behind the transportation of illegal drugs. His probe collides with the quiet lives of a young widow and her daughter, who are scooped up into his plight. Unfortunately, the plot is quick, but contrived; the characters are memorable but cartoonish; the reading by actor Victor Slezak is adequate but uninspired. Libraries should buy only as demand warrants. ["Fast paced and full of surprises, this taut thriller features a large cast of superbly drawn characters and the perfect amounts of realistic dialog and descriptive prose," read the more positive starred review of the New York Times best-selling Grand Central hc, LJ 7/11; the Grand Central pb will publish this month.—Ed.]—Kristen L. Smith, Loras Coll. Lib., Dubuque, IA

In Brown's latest romantic thriller, beautiful young widow Honor Gillette and her four-year-old daughter, Emily, wind up on the run through coastal Louisiana with a suspected mass murderer named Lee Coburn. Given the genre, it should come as no surprise that the rugged, self-reliant Coburn is no homicidal maniac and that he and Honor will eventually fall in love. Everything else is up for grabs, since the cops, nearly all of Honor's former friends, and maybe even the FBI are in the employ of a vicious drug lord and white slaver known only as the Bookkeeper. The villains are ruthless, the action perilous and plentiful, and Victor Slezak's narration wrings every drop of suspense from Brown's twisting and turning plot. Slezak also provides a full range of Southern accents: Honor's aristocratic, angry bully of a father-in-law, the redneck local law enforcement louts, and a sweetly sexy woman of means. Slezak even adds timidity and self-doubt to his portrayal of an FBI agent struggling with an impossible investigation, a passive-aggressive wife, and a permanently comatose child. A Grand Central hardcover. (Sept.)