Stillwater
A Thriller
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
For fans of Jack Reacher, Tanya Scott's debut thriller introduces readers to Luke Harris, a man trying to move beyond his criminal past but finds himself forced back into his old life and a deadly battle to survive.
When Jack Quinlan’s mother dies of a drug overdose, it’s not his father that raises him, but Gus—a ruthless crime boss who sees Jack for what he is: a whip-smart kid with untapped potential. It doesn’t take long for Gus to forge Jack into a weapon.
But Jack was also self-aware enough to know where this sort of life was going to lead him. When the time was right, he got out. Or so he thought.
Seven years later, Jack is now Luke Harris, a regular guy putting himself through college and aiming for a real job and a real future. Falling in love. But Jack’s past isn’t so easily forgotten, and the bodies in his closet won’t forgive him.
When Luke’s newfound life collides with Gus’s underworld, survival becomes a deadly game. Luke must resurrect his dormant skills and confront the demons that threaten to consume him.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In physician Scott's impressive debut, a young man with a spotty past returns home after seven years away. Jack Quinlan, now going by the alias Luke Harris, arrives in Melbourne hoping to put his mother's overdose and his father's criminal history—which sent Jack into foster care—behind him. Working as an in-home caregiver, he soon finds a stable income, a chance to put himself through university, and the possibility of romance with a client's daughter. But his new life is threatened when he encounters Gus Alberici, a crime boss whose sinister mentorship shaped Jack into a loyal enforcer when he was a boy. Gus demands his help locating Jack's father, who vanished years ago after stealing a large sum from Gus. With Gus under pressure to repay a rival kingpin, Jack is roped back into his criminal past, and forced to get his hands dirty if he wants to preserve his future. Scott makes the life-or-death stakes of Jack's dilemma palpable, and the novel's terse prose and three-dimensional characters add depth. This gritty coming-of-age tale grabs readers' attention and doesn't let go.
