Panic

From New York Times bestselling author Jeff Abbott... *What if everything about your life was a lie? *Evan Casher is a successful documentary filmmaker with a perfect life--until the day his mother is brutally murdered. Suddenly pursued by a ruthless circle of killers, Evan discovers his entire past has been a carefully constructed lie. With only one chance at survival and no one he can trust, Evan must discover the shocking truth about his family--and himself... From Publishers Weekly Starred Review. Not many audio versions of thrillers start with the bang that Abbott and Ganser bring to this story about a young man whose life explodes one spring morning. Evan Casher is a rising young documentary filmmaker, living in Houston, who is awakened early by a phone call from his mother, begging him to rush to the family home in Austin for reasons she can't explain on the phone. Ganser, veteran of 150 audio books, perfectly catches the mixture of frustration and annoyance in Evan's reluctant agreement and his attempts to reach his father�supposedly off on a sales trip to Australia�as well as his new ladyfriend, Carrie, back in Houston. Then, in a beautifully written and sensitively read moment of pure horror made all the more powerful by its understatement, Evan arrives in Austin to find his mother's body on the kitchen floor. She has been garroted with a wire. Her killers attack Evan, who is saved by the arrival of a mysterious stranger with a shotgun. Ganser brings all of Abbott's many characters�the killers, the baffled police and the ambiguous Carrie, who might be working for the enemy�to instant, unhyped life, letting Abbott's story about a man whose past has been an elaborate pretense unwind with breath-catching strength. Copyright � Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist Starred Review Those who disparage page-turners seldom appreciate what it takes to pull off a really good one, such as Abbott's engrossing hardcover debut, which follows a string of hardboiled paperback originals. There's nothing especially noteworthy about the story: no fancy props, global implications, history lessons, or distracting subplots. Just the familiar tale of a young man, a documentary filmmaker named Evan Casher, who awakes one morning to find his world turned upside down, his mother killed, himself pursued on all sides by enigmatic forces that range from menacing to sadistic, his loved ones in danger, everything he once believed in revealed to be a lie. Yet, with skilled handling of riveting action sequences, plot twists, and camera angles, all converging at breakneck speed, Abbott whips these simple ingredients into a near-perfect thriller that may indeed result in physical distress akin to panic for anyone trying to put the thing down before the last bullet flies. 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. David Wright Copyright � American Library Association. All rights reserved What if everything in your life was a lie?Things are going well for 24 year-old Evan Casher: his career as a documentary filmmaker is booming and his relationship with his new girlfriend, Carrie, couldn't be better. After an urgent phone call from his mother, he makes an unexpected trip home to Austin. Then the unthinkable happens. He arrives to find his mother brutally murdered, and narrowly escapes an attempt on his own life. Spirited away from the scene by an enigmatic mercenary with an agenda of his own, Evan is confronted with a shocking fact: his entire life has been little more than a carefully constructed lie.Pursued by a powerful, ruthless organization of killers who will stop at nothing to keep old secrets buried, Evan's only hope for survival is to uncover the truth about his family...and his own past. With his mother's attackers fast on his heels and with no one to trust--not the authorities, his father, nor the woman he loves--his perilous search takes him from the Texas Hill Country to New Orleans, to London, and to Miami. Full of unforgettable characters and jolting plot twists, Panic is an emotionally charged, heart-stopping thriller about one man's determination to take back his stolen life. Take "a ride down the roaring rapids" as New York Times bestselling author Jeff Abbott has "put together a hell of a page turner" (Michael Connelly, #1 bestselling author of The Law of Innocence ). What if everything about your life was a lie? Evan Casher is a successful documentary filmmaker with a perfect life—until the day his mother is brutally murdered. Suddenly pursued by a ruthless circle of killers, Evan discovers his entire past has been a carefully constructed lie. With only one chance at survival and no one he can trust, Evan must discover the shocking truth about his family—and himself...