From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. What would you do if, like Chicagoans Tom and Anna Reed, you stumbled on $400,000 that seemed heaven sent? After reading Sakey's masterful third crime thriller, you'd probably leave it untouched. In increasing debt from failed attempts to produce a child, Tom and Anna can't resist taking the money they discover hidden in their deceased tenant's apartment. After the initial euphoria, the Reeds find themselves dealing with a deadly drug dealer who wants something they don't have, a vengeful robber looking for the money they do have and a suspicious cop who knows they're holding out on him. Sakey, who excels at taking ordinary good people and forcing them to meet terrible challenges, ratchets up the stakes, creating ever more diabolical traps and ever more desperate escapes until the final shattering conclusion. Having topped his previous two novels (
At the City's Edge and
The Blade Itself), Sakey may have trouble equaling this stellar performance.
(Aug.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Product Description
The spectacular Dutton debut of a thriller writer whose ecstatically acclaimed work draws comparisons to luminaries such as Elmore Leonard, George Pelecanos, and Dennis Lehane
A family, and the security to enjoy it: that's all Tom and Anna Reed ever wanted. But years of infertility treatments, including four failed attempts at in-vitro fertilization, have left them with neither. The emotional and financial costs are straining their marriage and endangering their dreams. So when their downstairs tenant-a recluse whose promptly delivered cashier's checks were barely keeping them afloat-dies in his sleep, the $400,000 they find stashed in his kitchen seems like fate. More than fate: a chance for everything they've dreamed of for so long. A fairy-tale ending.
But Tom and Anna soon realize that fairy tales never come cheap. Because their tenant wasn't a hermit who squirreled away his pennies. He was a criminal who double-crossed some of the most dangerous men in Chicago. Men who won't stop until they get revenge, no matter where they find it.