From Kirkus Reviews
Ransom Unpaid ($22.95; Nov.; 224 pp.; 0-312-24233-6) Abigail Pearson still misses her long-missing husband Phillip, but not so much that she welcomes his return in spectral form. Now it's up to her minder, Emily Charters, and Emily's friend Jeremy Ransom, the Chicago PD's most genteel detective (Ransom for a Killing, 1998, etc.), to figure out whether the apparition that frightened Abigail into a heart attack was a vision, a fraud, or a warmup for an even more nefarious plot. --
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Product Description
In the middle of the night, Abigail Pearson is disturbed by the sound of footfalls and someone calling her name. The voice is hauntingly familiar, and when she goes to investigate, she sees her husband--a man who disappeared without a trace thirty years ago. The next morning her daughter finds Abigail unconscious on the stairway landing and she is rushed to the hospital. Her two children can find no apparent evidence of the long-missing husband she claims to have seen, and since Abigail has a heart condition, they are both worried about her continuing to live alone. JoAnna, Abigail's daughter, engages a friend of a friend, Emily Charters, to stay with Abigail for a while after she is released from the hospital. Emily quickly comes to believe that something nefarious is indeed at work and calls upon her friend, Chicago police detective Jeremy Ransom, to help her try to sort things out. The building tension between the various members of the family, another nocturnal visit by Abigail's husband, and the mystery of his disappearance in the first place make this the strangest case yet for both Jeremy and Emily.
