The Ascent
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4.4 • 7 Ratings
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
When a high security prison fails, a down-on-his luck cop and the governor’s daughter must team up if they’re going to escape in this "jaw-dropping, authentic, and absolutely gripping" (Harlan Coben, #1 New York Times bestselling author) bestselling thriller from Adam Plantinga, whose first nonfiction book Lee Child praised as “truly excellent.”
Kurt Argento, an ex-Detroit street cop who can’t let injustice go—and who has the fighting skills to back up his idealism.
If he sees a young girl being dragged into an alley, he's going to rescue her and cause some damage.
When he does just that in a small corrupt Missouri town, he’s brutally beaten and thrown into a maximum-security prison.
Julie Wakefield, a grad student who happens to be the governor's daughter, is about to take a tour of the prison. But when a malfunction in the security system releases a horde of prisoners, a fierce struggle for survival ensues.
Argento must help a small band of staff and civilians, including Julie and her two state trooper handlers, make their way from the bottom floor to the roof to safety.
All that stands in their way are six floors of the most dangerous convicts in Missouri.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Adam Plantinga’s debut thriller is a tense journey out of hell on earth, aka a maximum-security prison. Kurt Argento is an ex-cop whose stubborn compulsion to do the right thing ultimately lands him behind bars, where his luck goes from bad to worse. When the prison’s security system mysteriously fails during a visit from a prominent young woman, Kurt find himself going up against six floors of Missouri’s most dangerous inmates. Plantinga serves up a master class in suspense. Packed with high-stakes action, The Ascent is a riveting tale of survival and justice.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The knockout first novel from San Francisco police sergeant Plantinga (Police Craft) unfolds during a deadly breach at a maximum-security prison. Kurt Argento is a former Detroit cop driving cross country to see the Pacific Ocean when he's mistakenly arrested in a Missouri town and, due to a plumbing issue at the local jail and the Fourth of July preceding his court date, held over the long weekend in a nearby maximum-security facility. Shortly after he arrives, the prison's security system crashes during a visit from the governor's daughter, Julie Wakefield, and all inmates are released from their cells. Always a cop, Argento leads a small team of prison staff and accompanying civilians in guiding Julie up six floors of bloody chaos to their potential rescue on the roof. Plantinga maintains a breakneck pace from start to finish, with end-of-chapter cliffhangers and a devilish narrative structure in which each floor of the prison poses a different and more harrowing threat than the last. Along the way, the tension Plantinga generates between Argento's Jack Reacher–level self-confidence and criminology major Julie's more cerebral worldview exerts an irresistible pull. Once readers catch their breath, they'll be clamoring for more from this rising star.
