In the Hush of the Night
A Novel
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- $27.99
Publisher Description
From the New York Times bestselling author and former James Bond novelist comes a gritty, riveting tale of modern crime, featuring a female FBI agent embroiled in a Russian human trafficking case.
Chicago Special Agent Annie Marino examines the case of a dead young woman who possesses a tattoo Annie has come across before—that of bloody bear claws. Several deceased women with the tattoo have turned up over the past few years, all suspected of being involved in a vast human trafficking operation.
Annie’s neighborhood friend, Jason Ward, is a young writer engaged to be married into an upper-class family from a posh Chicago suburb. Jason believes his future brother-in-law, a war veteran, is definitely a bully—but does he also have ties to the Russian mob?
Yana Kravec, a woman from St. Petersburg, Russia, has been fraudulently lured into a trafficking scheme and thrown into a horrid and seemingly hopeless situation. She is, however, determined to fight back and escape her captors.
Annie’s investigation eventually uncovers a sordid plot of procuring slaves overseas and marketing them in the US. Her interests soon coincide with those of Jason and Yana, bringing the trio together to fight against a deadly network of criminals. As the separate lives of these characters collide, their paths ultimately converge in a night of terror and survival in a Michigan forest, where they become the prey of evil men who will stop at nothing to protect their secrets.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Chicago FBI special agent Annie Marino, the heroine of this uneven crime novel from Benson (The Secrets on Chicory Lane), joins forces with Harris Caruthers, an FBI special agent from Detroit, after the body of an unidentified young woman with bear claws tattooed on her neck turns up in Lakeway, Mich. She is but the latest victim in a series of slayings in recent years of women all with the same tattoo. Marino and Caruthers begin to uncover what appears to be an international human trafficking network. The suspense builds as the focus shifts among a number of characters, including Yana Kravec, a Russian woman lured to the U.S. by prospects of the good life; Marino's neighbor, writer Jason Ward, whose prospective brother-in-law, Trey Paley, could have ties to the Russian mob; and Trey's wealthy father, Greg, who owns an import business. Marino proves herself a dedicated investigator, but the results of her efforts lead to a forced and unsatisfying ending. Benson has done better.
