Descripción editorial
A powerful story about a mother’s courage in the face of overwhelming odds.
Fernanda Barnes’s life was once graced by security, success and stunning wealth. Now, widowed and with a mounting pile of debts, she is trying desperately to shield her three children from the rising panic within her.
When a file of press clippings and photos of the Barnes family is found in the desk of a convicted criminal, police detective Ted Lee is sent to protect them. He is a man of unshakable integrity but even he cannot prevent the devastating events that follow.
In a gripping race against time, Detective Lee is the only man who can save Fernanda and her children from a terrifying fate . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A reformed drug dealer, a desperate widow, a bigtime crook and a compassionate cop are the players in this perfunctory kidnapping yarn set in San Francisco. Peter Morgan, a privileged young man, lost everything in a personal war with drugs, including his wife and two daughters. When he is released from prison, he is determined to go straight, but hard times force him to seek out Phillip Addison, a business mogul with many shady operations on the side. Addison makes Morgan an offer he can't refuse: either recruit some fellow ex-cons to kidnap the children of recently deceased dot-com multimillionaire Allan Barnes, or his own kids will suffer. Against his will, Morgan hatches a plan. Meanwhile, Allan's widow, Fernanda, is struggling to make ends meet, since unknown to nearly everyone, Allan lost all his money in bad investments before committing suicide. The San Francisco cops, led by Insp. Det. Ted Lee, find files suggesting that Addison is plotting something, but even heavy police protection can't prevent Fernanda's youngest son, Sam, from being snatched. Lee moves into the Barnes mansion to oversee the search for the kidnappers and watch over Fernanda, but in the end Morgan plays the crucial role in saving Sam. The novel begins slowly, with lengthy introductions to all the principal characters, and never picks up speed, with Steel narrating as if from a distance, glossing over critical scenes and skimping on dialogue. Reluctant villain Morgan is a sympathetic bad guy, and Steel engineers the requisite romance between Ted and Fernanda, but this is thin fare.
