One Breath Away

By Heather Gudenkauf

In her most emotionally charged novel to date, New York Times bestselling author Heather Gudenkauf explores the unspoken events that shape a community, the ties between parents and their children and how the fragile normalcy of our everyday life is so easily shattered.

In the midst of a sudden spring snowstorm, an unknown man armed with a gun walks into an elementary school classroom. Outside the school, the town of Broken Branch watches and waits.

Officer Meg Barrett holds the responsibility for the town's children in her hands. Will Thwaite – reluctantly entrusted with the care of his two grandchildren by the daughter who left home years earlier – stands by helplessly and wonders if he has failed his child again. Trapped in her classroom, Evelyn Oliver watches for an opportunity to rescue the children in her care. And thirteen–year–old Augie Baker – already struggling with the aftermath of a terrible accident that has brought her to Broken Branch – will risk her own safety to protect her little brother.

As tension mounts with each passing minute, the hidden fears and grudges of the small town are revealed as the people of Broken Branch race to uncover the identity of the stranger who holds their children hostage.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Australia
• Release date: Jul 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9781460810286

Heather Gudenkauf

Heather Gudenkauf is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Weight of Silence and Not a Sound. Heather lives in Iowa with her family.

Book preview

Chapter 1:

Holly

I’m in that lovely space between consciousness and sleep. I feel no pain thanks to the morphine pump and I can almost believe that the muscles, tendons and skin of my left arm have knitted themselves back together, leaving my skin smooth and pale. My curly brown hair once again falls softly down my back, my favorite earrings dangle from my ears and I can lift both sides of my mouth in a wide smile without much pain at the thought of my children. Yes, drugs are a wonderful thing. But the problem is that while the carefully prescribed and doled-out narcotics by the nurses wonderfully dull the edges of this nightmare, I know that soon enough this woozy, pleasant feeling will fall away and all that I will be left with is pain and the knowledge that Augie and P.J. are thousands of miles away from me. Sent away to the place where I grew up, the town I swore I would never return to, the house I swore I would never again step into, to the man I never wanted them to meet.

The tinny melody of the ringtone that Augie, my thirteen-year-old daughter, programmed into my cell phone is pulling me from my sleep. I open one eye, the one that isn’t covered with a thick ointment and crusted shut, and call out for my mother, who must have stepped out of the room. I reach for the phone that is sitting on the tray table at the side of my bed and the nerve endings in my bandaged left arm scream in protest at the movement. I carefully shift my body to pick up the phone with my good hand and press the phone to my remaining ear.

Hello. The word comes out half-formed, breathless and scratchy, as if my lungs were still filled with smoke.

Mom? Augie’s voice is quavery, unsure. Not sounding like my daughter at all. Augie is confident, smart, a take-charge, no one is ever going to walk all over me kind of girl.

Augie? What’s the matter? I try to blink the fuzziness of the morphine away; my tongue is dry and sticks to the roof of my mouth. I want to take a sip of water from the glass sitting on my tray, but my one working hand holds the phone. The other lies useless at my side. Are you okay? Where are you?

There are a few seconds of quiet and then Augie continues. I love you, Mom, she says in a whisper that ends in quiet sobs.

I sit up straight in my bed, wide awake now. Pain shoots through my bandaged arm and up the side of my neck and face. Augie, what’s the matter?

I’m at school. She is crying in that way she has when she is doing her damnedest not to. I can picture her, head down, her long brown hair falling around her face, her eyes squeezed shut in determination to keep the tears from falling, her breath filling my ear with short, shallow puffs. He has a gun. He has P.J. and he has a gun.

Who has P.J.? Terror clutches at my chest. Tell me, Augie, where are you? Who has a gun?

I’m in a closet. He put me in a closet.

My mind is spinning. Who could be doing this? Who would do this to my children? Hang up, I tell her. Hang up and call 9-1-1 right now, Augie. Then call me back. Can you do that? I hear her sniffles. Augie, I say again, more sharply. Can you do that?

Yeah, she finally says. I love you, Mom, she says softly.

I love you, too. My eyes fill with tears and I can feel the moisture pool beneath the bandages that cover my injured eye.

I wait for Augie to disconnect when I hear three quick shots, followed by two more and Augie’s piercing screams.

I feel the bandages that cover the left side of my face peel away, my own screams loosening the adhesive holding them in place; I feel the fragile, newly grafted skin begin to unravel. I am scarcely aware of the nurses and my mother rushing to my side, tearing the phone from my grasp.

Chapter 2:

Augie

My pants are still damp from when Noah Plum pushed me off the shoveled sidewalk into a snowbank after we got off the bus and were on our way into school this morning. Noah Plum is the biggest asshole in eighth grade but for some reason I’m the only one who has figured this out and I’ve only lived here for eight weeks and everyone else has lived here for their entire lives. Except for maybe Milana Nevara, whose dad is from Mexico and is the town veterinarian. But she moved here when she was two so she may as well have been born here, anyway.

The classroom is freezing and my fingers are numb with the cold. Mr. Ellery says it’s because it is not supposed to be below zero at the end of March and the boiler has been put out to pasture. Mr. Ellery, my teacher and one of the only good things about this school, is sitting at his desk grading papers. Everyone, except Noah, of course, is writing in their notebooks. Each day after lunch we start class with journal time and we can write about anything we want to during the first ten minutes of class. Mr. Ellery said we could even write the same word over and over for the entire time and Noah asked, What if it’s a bad word?

Knock yourself out, Mr. Ellery said, and everyone laughed. Mr. Ellery always gives time for people to read what they’ve written out loud if they’d like to. I’ve never shared. No way I’m going to let these morons know what I’m thinking. I’ve read Harriet the Spy and I keep my notebook with me all the time. Never let it out of my sight.

In my old school in Arizona, there were over two hundred eighth graders in my grade and we had different teachers for each subject. In Broken Branch there are only twenty-two of us so we have Mr. Ellery for just about every subject. Mr. Ellery, besides being really cute, is the absolutely best teacher I’ve ever had. He’s funny, but never makes fun of anyone and isn’t sarcastic like some teachers think is so hilarious. He also doesn’t let people get away with making crap out of anyone. All he has to do is stare at the person and they shut up. Even Noah Plum.

Mr. Ellery always writes a journal prompt on the dry erase board in case we can’t think of what to write about. Today he has written During spring break I am going to…

Even Mr. Ellery’s stare doesn’t work today; everyone is whispering and smiling because they are excited about vacation. All right, folks, Mr. Ellery says. Get down to work and if we have some time left over we’ll play Pictionary.

Yesss! the kids around me hiss. Great. I open my notebook to the next clean page and begin writing.

During spring break we’re going to fly back to Arizona to see our mother. The only sounds in the classroom are the scratch of pencils on paper and Erika’s annoying sniffles; she always has a runny nose and gets up twenty times a day to get a tissue. I don’t care if I ever see snow or cows ever again. I don’t care if I ever see my grandfather again. I am hoping with all my might that instead of coming back to Broken Branch after spring break, my mother will be well enough for us to come home. My grandfather tells us this isn’t going to happen. My mother is far from being able to come home from the hospital. My mom will be in Arizona until she is out of the hospital and well enough to get on a plane and come here so Grandma and Grandpa, who I met for the first time ever a couple months ago, can take care of all of us. But it doesn’t matter what my grandpa says—after spring break, I am not coming back to Broken Branch.

A sharp crack, like a branch snapped in half during an ice storm, makes me look up from my notebook. Mr. Ellery hears it, too, and stands up from behind his desk and walks to the classroom door, steps into the hallway and comes back in shrugging his shoulders. Looks like someone broke a window at the end of the hallway. I’m going to go check. You guys stay in your seats. I’ll be right back.

Before he can even leave the classroom the shaky voice of Mrs. Lowell, the school secretary, comes on the intercom. Teachers, this is a Code Red Lockdown. Go to your safe place.

A snort comes from Noah. Go to your safe place, he says, mimicking Mrs. Lowell. No one else says a thing and we all stare at Mr. Ellery, waiting for him to tell us what to do next. I haven’t been here long enough to know what a Code Red Lockdown is. But it can’t be good.

Chapter 3:

Mrs. Oliver

The morning the man with the gun walked into Evelyn Oliver’s classroom, she was wearing two items she had vowed during her forty-three-year career as a teacher never to wear. Denim and rhinestones. Mrs. Oliver was a firm believer that a teacher should look like a teacher. Well-groomed, blouses with collars, skirts and pantsuits crisply ironed, dress shoes polished. None of that nonsense younger teachers wore these days. Miniskirts, tennis shoes, plunging necklines. Tattoos, for goodness’ sake. For instance, Mr. Ellery, the young eighth-grade teacher, had a tattoo on his right arm. A series of bold black slashes and swoops that Mrs. Oliver recognized as Asian in origin. "It means teacher in Chinese," Mr. Ellery, wearing a sleeveless T-shirt, told her after, embarrassingly, he caught her staring at his deltoid muscle one stifling-hot August afternoon during in-service week when all the teachers were preparing their classrooms for the school year. Mrs. Oliver sniffed in disapproval, but really she couldn’t help but wonder how painful it must be to have someone precisely and methodically inject ink into one’s skin.

Casual Fridays were the worst, with teachers, even the older ones, wearing denim and sweatshirts emblazoned with the school name and logo—the Broken Branch Consolidated School Hornets.

But on this unusually bitter March day, the last day school was in session before spring break, Mrs. Oliver had on the denim jumper she now knew she was going to die while wearing. Shameful, she thought, after all these years of razor-sharp pleats and itchy support hose.

Last week, after all the other third graders had left for the day, Mrs. Oliver had tentatively opened the crumpled striped pink-and-yellow gift bag handed to her by Charlotte, a skinny, disheveled eight-year-old with shoulder-length, burnished-black hair that chronically housed a persistent family of lice.

What’s this, Charlotte? Mrs. Oliver asked in surprise. My birthday isn’t until this summer.

I know, Charlotte answered with a gap-toothed grin. But my mom and me thought you’d get more use out of it if I gave it to you now.

Mrs. Oliver expected to find an apple-scented candle or homemade cookies or a hand-painted birdhouse inside, but instead pulled out a denim stone-washed jumper with rhinestones painstakingly arranged in the shape of a rainbow twinkling up at her. Charlotte looked expectantly up at Mrs. Oliver through the veil of bangs that covered her normally mischievous gray eyes.

I Bedazzled it myself. Mostly, Charlotte explained. My mom helped with the rainbow. She placed a grubby finger on the colorful arch. Roy V. Big. Red, orange, yellow, violet, blue, indigo, green. Just like you said. Charlotte smiled brightly, showing her small, even baby teeth, still all intact.

Mrs. Oliver didn’t have the heart to tell Charlotte that the correct mnemonic for remembering the colors in the rainbow was Roy G. Biv, but took comfort in that fact that she at least knew all the colors of the rainbow if not the proper order. It’s lovely, Charlotte, Mrs. Oliver said, holding the dress in front of her. I can tell you worked hard on it.

I did, Charlotte said solemnly. For two weeks. I was going to Bedazzle a birthday cake on the front but then my mom said you might wear it more if it wasn’t so holiday-ish. I almost ran out of beads. My little brother thought they were Skittles.

I will certainly get a lot of wear out of it. Thank you, Charlotte. Mrs. Oliver reached over to pat Charlotte on the shoulder and Charlotte immediately leaned in and wrapped her arms around Mrs. Oliver’s thick middle, pressing her face into the buttons of her starched white blouse. Mrs. Oliver felt a tickle beneath her iron-gray hair and resisted the urge to scratch.

It was Mrs. Oliver’s husband, Cal, who had convinced her to wear the dress. What can it hurt? he asked just this morning when he caught her standing in front of her open closet, looking at the jumper garishly glaring right back at her.

I don’t wear denim to school, and I’m certainly not going to start wearing it just before I retire, she said, not looking him in the eye, remembering how Charlotte had rushed eagerly into the classroom at the beginning of the week to see if she was wearing the dress.

She worked on it for two weeks, Cal reminded her at the breakfast table.

It’s not professional, she snapped, thinking of how on each passing day this week, Charlotte’s shoulders wilted more and more as she entered the room to find her teacher wearing her typical wool-blend slacks, blouse and cardigan.

"Her fingers bled," Cal said through a mouthful of oatmeal.

It’s supposed to be ten below outside today. It’s too cold to wear a dress, Mrs. Oliver told her husband, miserably picturing how Charlotte wouldn’t even look her way yesterday, defiantly pursing her lips and refusing to answer any questions directed at her.

Wear long johns and a turtleneck underneath, her husband said mildly, coming up behind her and kissing her on the neck in the way that even after forty-five years of marriage caused her to shiver deliciously.

Because he was right—Cal was always right—she had brushed him away in irritation and told him she was going to be late for school if she didn’t get dressed right then. Wearing the jumper, she left him sitting at the kitchen table finishing his oatmeal, drinking coffee and reading the newspaper. She hadn’t told him she loved him, she hadn’t kissed his wrinkled cheek in goodbye. Don’t forget to plug in the Crock-Pot, she called as she stepped outside into the soft gray morning. The sun hadn’t emerged yet, but it was the warmest it would be that day, the temperature tumbling with each passing hour. As she climbed into her car to make the twenty-five-minute drive from her home in Dalsing to the school in Broken Branch, she didn’t realize it could be the last time she made that journey.

It was worth it, she supposed, after seeing Charlotte’s face transform from jaded disappointment to pure joy when she saw that Mrs. Oliver was actually wearing the dress. Of course Cal was right. Wearing the impractical, gaudy thing wouldn’t hurt anything; she’d had to suffer the raised eyebrows in the teacher’s lounge, but that was nothing new. And it obviously had meant a lot to Charlotte, who was now cowering in her desk along with fifteen other third graders, gaping up at the man with the gun. At least, Mrs. Oliver thought, shocking herself with the inappropriateness of the idea, if he shot her in the chest, she couldn’t be buried in the damn thing.

Chapter 4:

Meg

I’m trying to figure out what I’m going to do with all my free time for the next four days as I drive idly around Broken Branch in my squad car. This will be the first year that I won’t have Maria with me for spring break. By the looks of things, spring doesn’t seem like it will be appearing any time soon, even though it officially arrived two days earlier.

By rights, Tim should be able to have Maria this vacation; she’s spent the past two with me. But I had it all planned out for tomorrow, my day off. We were going to bake Dutch letters, flaky almond-flavored cookies, the one family tradition I’ve kept from when I was young. Afterward we were going to pitch a tent and have an old-fashioned campout in the living room. Then we were going to take advantage of the freak snowstorm to go snowshoeing at the bottom of Ox-eye Bluff with hot chocolate and marshmallows and oyster chowder when we got home. I even persuaded Kevin Jarrow, the part-timer on our police force, to pick up my Saturday shift so I could spend it with Maria. But this time Tim insisted. He finally scored a full five days off from his job as an EMT in Waterloo, where we both grew up.

Listen, Meg, he said when he called me the day before yesterday. I don’t ask for much, but I really want Maria this school break….

She’s not an item on your grocery list, I said hotly. I thought we had this all figured out.

"You had it all figured out, he said. Which was true. I want to spend a few days with her and I don’t think there’s anything unreasonable about that."

Where did this suddenly come from? I asked.

Hey, I’ll take any minute I can get with Maria and you know it. Besides, you’ve had her the past two holidays. He was getting angry now. I imagined him sitting in the duplex we once shared, rubbing his forehead the way he did when he was frustrated.

I know, I said softly. I just had it all planned out.

You could always come spend some of the time with us, he said cautiously. I sighed. I was too tired to have this conversation. Meg, you know I never did the things you thought I did. Here we go, I thought. Every few months Tim insists that he didn’t have the affair with his coworker, that she was an unstable liar who had wanted something more, but whom he had rebuffed. Some days I half believe him. This isn’t one of those days.

You can pick her up on Wednesday after school, I told him.

I was hoping tomorrow, after I get done with work. Around noon.

She’ll miss her last day of school before vacation. That’s when they do all the fun things. It sounded lame, I know, but it was all I had.

Meg, he said in that way he has. Meg, please…

Fine, I snapped.

So yesterday I said goodbye to my beautiful, funny, sweet, perfect seven-year-old daughter. I’ll call you every day, I promised her, feeling like I was saying goodbye forever. Twice.

Bye, Mom, she said, swiping a quick kiss across my cheek before climbing into Tim’s car.

If it hasn’t all melted, we’ll go snowshoeing when you get back, I called after her.

So, we’ll be at my folks tomorrow night for dinner and at my sister’s on Sunday. His face turned serious. I ran into your mom last week.

Oh, I said as if I didn’t care.

Yeah, they’d really like to see Maria.

I bet they would, I grumbled.

Is it okay if I take her over to see them?

I shrugged. I guess. My parents weren’t bad people, just not particularly good people. Promise me you won’t leave her at the trailer, it’s a death trap. And make sure Travis isn’t hanging around when you visit. My brother, Travis, is one of the main reasons I became a police officer. Growing up he made my parents’ lives miserable and mine pure hell. It seemed like every week a police officer was at the door of our trailer, Travis in tow. They gave him more than enough chances to get his shit together and he blew it time and time again. It wasn’t until the summer I was thirteen and Travis was sixteen, when he threatened my father with a kitchen knife, smacked my mother across the face and ripped out a chunk of my hair as I tried to pull him away from them, that the police finally got serious.

What do you want to do? Officer Stepanich, a frequent visitor to our home, asked wearily. His young female partner, Officer Demelo, stood by silently, taking in the broken glass, the knocked-over chairs, the bald spot on the top of my head. Welcome to our lovely home, I wanted to say, but instead my face burned with shame.

Fully expecting my parents to finally say enough is enough and have Travis’s ass arrested for assault, they once again refused to press charges.

What do you want to do? Officer Demelo asked, and I looked up in surprise when I realized she was talking to me and only me.

Now, now, Officer Stepanich said, this is really a parent decision.

I don’t think that wad of hair on the floor got there by itself and I can’t imagine that Meg here pulled it out of her own head, Officer Demelo said, her eyes never leaving mine. I was surprised she remembered my name and even more impressed that she ignored the obviously senior officer’s lead. Let’s see what she wants to do, Officer Demelo insisted.

Travis smirked. He was six inches taller and about eighty pounds heavier than I was, but in that moment, knowing that only an ignorant coward would beat on his family the way he did, I felt stronger, more powerful. He thought he was invincible. But in that sliver of a moment, I knew that there was a way out for our family.

I want to press charges, I said, speaking only to Officer Demelo, who didn’t look much older than I was, but carried herself with a confidence I wanted for myself.

You sure that’s what you want to do? Officer Stepanich asked.

Yes, I said firmly. I do. Officer Stepanich turned to my parents, who looked bewildered but nodded their agreement. They took Travis away in handcuffs. He came back home a few days later. I expected him to exact some kind of revenge upon me, but he kept his distance, didn’t lay a hand on me. It didn’t keep him out of trouble, though. Over the years he’s been in and out of jail, most recently for drug possession. That arrest twenty years ago didn’t change Travis, but in my mind it saved my life.

Travis will get nowhere near Maria, Tim promised. He looked as if he’d like to say more, then settled on, Talk to you later, Meg. He drove away with Maria waving happily goodbye.

My windshield wipers can barely keep up with the thick snow that is falling. Great, I think. I’ll be shoveling for hours after I end my ten-hour shift at three o’clock. I debate whether to still make the Dutch letters tomorrow and decide to ditch that idea; instead, I’ll sleep in, watch TV, pick up a pizza from Casey’s and feel sorry for myself.

I feel my phone vibrate in my coat pocket. I peek at the display thinking it might be Maria. Stuart. Shit. I stuff my phone back into my coat. Stuart, a newspaper reporter who wrote for the Des Moines Observer and lived about an hour and a half from Broken Branch, and I called it quits about a month ago when I found out he wasn’t actually separated from his wife like he told me. Nope, they were still living under the same roof and, at least from her perspective, happily married. Yeah, the irony isn’t lost on me. I divorced my ex for screwing around and I end up being the other woman in some poor lady’s nightmare. Stuart said all the usual crap: I love you, it’s a loveless marriage, I’m leaving her, blah, blah, blah. Then there was the little issue where Stuart used me to get the biggest story of his career. I told him if he didn’t shut up I was going to shoot him with my Glock. I was only half joking.

I flip open the phone. I’m working, Stuart, I snap.

Wait, wait, he says. This is a business call.

All the better reason for me to hang up, I say shortly.

I hear you’ve got an intruder at the school, Stuart says in his breezy, confident way. Asshole.

Where’d you hear that? I ask cautiously, trying not to give away the fact that this is news to me.

It’s all over, Meg. Our phone at the paper has been ringing off the hook. Kids are posting it on their walls and tweeting all about it. What’s going on?

I can’t comment on any ongoing investigation, I say firmly, my mind spinning. An intruder at the school? No. If there was something going on I would know about it.

Maria. Is she okay?

That’s none of your business, I say softly. I wasn’t the only one Stuart hurt.

Wait, he says before I can hang up. Maybe I can help you.

How’s that? I say suspiciously.

I can track the media end of things, keep you informed of what we hear, give you a heads-up on anything that sounds important.

Stuart, I say, shaking my head. Honestly, nothing you have to say to me is important anymore.

Chapter 5:

Will

That morning, as Will Thwaite watched his grandchildren climb onto the school bus, the horizon not yet shaded with the petal-pink edging that comes before the sunrise, he realized, as he often did in the dark-cornered mornings, that he missed his wife terribly. He was so used to having Marlys there right by his side working the farm. She was the one who shook him awake at five each morning, the one who pushed a thermos of hot coffee into his hands and sent him out the door with the promise of a hot breakfast upon his return from feeding the cattle. He felt her absence the way one might miss a limb. Fifty years they would be married, this coming fall. He tried to remember the last time she had been away from the farm overnight and settled

Reviews for One Breath Away

[howifeelaboutbooks · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A gunman enters a school in the small town of Broken Branch and no one knows who he is or what he wants. The story is told from the point of view of many different characters: a teacher and student inside the school, a police officer and grandparent outside the school, and a hostage's mother who is states away. At times the stories get a bit confusing - all of the townspeople are characters, and sometimes it's hard to remember who's who. The suspense, however, is incredibly well done. The story comes together piece by piece, and even though you may figure out who the gunman is a few pages for the big reveal, it's still a nice surprise.

[heatherlinc · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Whilst I enjoyed this book it didn't have the action and suspense I was expecting. Instead there was a lot of back story which slowed the story down. The book unfolded through the eyes of five main characters, which I enjoyed, but what annoyed me was the fact that some were told in first person while others were in the third person. I would have preferred them being all one or the other. "One Breath Away" certainly wasn't a thriller, but an okay read for an extremely hot weekend, although I must say I found the ending lacking.

[nicx27 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I've read and enjoyed both of Heather Gudenkauf's previous books, and so I was really looking forward to One Breath Away. I wasn't disappointed. The story takes place over the course of one day in Broken Branch, Iowa, where a gunman has entered the school and taken a class of children and their teacher hostage. The chapters are very short and each one is told from the point of view of different characters. This is a very effective way of keeping the tension going and enables the reader to see it from all angles.The nice short chapters means it's a very easy book to read and it's fast-moving. The author writes very well in the vein of Diane Chamberlain and Jodi Picoult, so if you like their books then you will enjoy this one.

[a_reader_of_fictions · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

For those of you who don't know, some audiobooks include a bit of music. Not all the way through or anything, but at the very beginning and end. One Breath Away actually has music at the opening and closing of each disc. The music has a creepy sound, and seems like theme music for some sort of crime drama program. This fits One Breath Away perfectly, because it definitely felt more like a made for television movie than a serious consideration of a gunman taking over a school.

The topic, of course, inherently involves a lot of drama, fear and creepiness. The fact that a man with a gun would decide that the best way to make whatever point he has to make is to enter a school and take some children as hostages really freaks me out, mostly because it doesn't necessarily have to do with the children at all; they are merely innocent victims of a madman. Basically, this subject matter has plenty of natural intensity and shock value without adding additional sob stories into the mix.

Gudenkauf tells this story using multiple third person limited narratives. The first is a mother, Holly, recuperating slowly in a hospital. In the meantime, her children, Augie and PJ have been sent to live with her estranged her father, while her mother sits at her bedside. How was she injured? In a grease fire, and she was injured to an insane degree. Not only that, but the fire was inadvertently caused by Augie, who never apologized before this incident.

The second perspective is Augie's. Because of the guilt over her accidentally wounding her mother, when the school gets locked down, Augie decides she won't leave without PJ. Her class escapes early on, but she decides to stay and look for PJ, who's in the classroom with the gunman. Holly's perspective existed solely to add an extra level of sadness to this story, which really was not necessary. Why not make her any other mother, waiting outside the school? No matter the family situation, any relatively caring mother will be frozen with fear until she finds out her kids are safe; other than pure melodrama value, there's no reason to have her be gravely injured, at risk of ruining her skin grafts. Maybe that wasn't Gudenkauf's intention, but it detracted from the believability of the book for me.

The third perspective, and the only male one, is Will, Holly's father. He and Holly have not talked since she left home as a teen, sick of the farm and of Iowa and of her dad who cared more about cows than his child. Will spends his time worrying about everyone, rightly so, but also stumbling into crucial information regarding the case and saving people. Again, this had a sort of cinematic feel to it, more than might necessarily be going down in real life. Oh, also, there was a crazy snow storm too.

Our fourth perspective is Meg, a police officer. Her daughter would have been in the school, but she left before the last day to spend the weekend with her father, from whom Meg is divorced. Both Meg and Holly have a very powerful feminist attitude towards sex, though they seem to look down on themselves for it a bit, which is unfortunate. Their lives parallel somewhat, but more could have been made of that.

Rounding out the story is Mrs. Oliver, the so-close-to-retiring teacher of the hostage class. She does try very hard for the kids, but I had trouble accepting that a no-nonsense teacher like she is described to be would confront the gunman in some of the highly stupid ways she does. The reader also gets a lot of back story on Mrs. Oliver that, I personally did not find useful to the plot or interesting.

The audiobook version should have made their characters come more alive for me, but, sadly, that was not the case. I really did not like any of the narrators voices, though Meg was better than the rest. For one thing, they all had a really annoying accent, which I guess must be an Iowan accent for authenticity, but, whatever it is, I would have been happier without it. The worst performance has to be the one for Augie, as the narrator used a really obnoxious trying-to-sound-like-a-child voice, which skewed too young for eighth grader Augie and made her sound incredibly dumb.

Looking at Goodreads, I can see that there are 3000 plus ratings for this, most of them four and five stars. Listening to an audio can be a very different experience, so, perhaps, had I read this I would have liked it more. I really cannot say. If you're curious, look at some other reviews or try the book yourself, preferably in print unless you love the Iowa accent, before writing it off.

[pidgeon92_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A brief, vaguely interesting story of a hostage situation at a small town school. Told by many perspectives, the narration seemed overly simple.

[bishhy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Stuck in her classroom with fear embedded in her students eyes, Evelyn Oliver finds herself face to face with a man she doesn't recognize holding her and her students hostage with a gun in his hand. Evelyn doesn't know what to do, but one thing she's sure about is not letting this man hurt any of her students. Augie Baker is thirteen years old and in her class when her school goes on lock down, she doesn't know what going on or who's in the building, but she knows she has to go find her little brother P.J., which is exactly where the shooter is. Officer Meg Barrett can't believe that this is happening, a shooting in a small town, in Broken Branch, Iowa and takes it upon herself to find out who this person is and stop them before anyone gets hurt.Wow. It took me an extremely long time to finish this book. I'm not saying it wasn't good, because damn, IT. WAS. GOOD. Beyond good. I just found myself putting this book down every time I got goosebumps or when tears decided to leak out my eyeballs! Which was pretty much every 20-30 pages. Ms. Gudenkauf really knows how to deliver. When she says queue goosebumps you damned well get goosebumps! This book jumps from person to person, now, usually I get a little weary reading books with different POV's but this one was the complete opposite. You're getting to know all of the characters and getting a feel for the situation through the eyes of not only the victims, but the families and the police officers as well. There was never a dull moment in this book, it kept me on edge and guessing who the hell this demented man with a gun is. Ms. Gudenkauf definitely threw some curve balls, the minute I thought I had the shooter pinned down, you get a new set of information that has you second guessing yourself.What I liked about this book, gosh, EVERYTHING! From the setting, to the characters, to Ms. Gudenkauf's writing. You can't help but feel what all the characters are feeling. Being in the middle of a snow storm during this tragic event, you can practically feel the cold seeping into your skin and feel the sadness and the longing that the parents are feeling. Which totally adds to the book overall. It takes a lot for me to cry and this book and the fact that after the first POV I had to put the book down, definitely says something. There wasn't anything I disliked about this book Nothing at all, everything tied together perfectly. I definitely recommend this book. This is my first women's fiction book. I'm not new to suspense, but this definitely tops all the suspense books I've read. If you're a fan of suspense then pick this book up, if you love women's fiction, hell, any fiction book, then this is too your book! Fair warning, buy a box of tissues.

[nurdgirl · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Although I think the premise behind the book is good, I had a hard time going back and forth from the different perspectives of all the charactors. It held my interest especially with all the school shootings, but maybe limit how many people are telling the story. It does keep you guessing as I did not figure out who the shooter was until it was revealed.

[maydacat_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This tense thriller by Heather Gudenkauf is terrifyingly real. For any parent or grandparent it is a fear that is always lurking somewhere in the subconscious: what if a madman with a gun enters my child’s school? Life changing moments sometimes are only one breath away. Told from the point of view of five characters, the reader is able to put together a comprehensive understanding of the situation. As in "These Things Hidden," the novel begins seemingly in the middle of the story, and details are disclosed as more of the story unfolds. With well developed characters and good use of description, the author conveys her message with a minimum of words. Before you start this novel, be sure you have enough time to finish it, because once you begin, you won’t want to stop reading until it’s over.

[rtb_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Reviewed by: AprilBook provided by: Contest win at Revolving BookcaseReview originally posted at Romancing the BookAn amazingly gripping and shell shocking read, One Breath Away by Heather Gudenkauf is a story that rings true in today’s society and is one that will not leave this reader’s mind for some time.We live in a world where we have to be on alert constantly. There are people out there that care less for the lives of others and see those lives as disposable. The world we live in today is one of greed and immorality and a place where even the innocence of our children can be ripped away in a heartbeat. One Breath Away is this story. This is a story of a man set on revenge and without conscience, who will harm those who gets in his way without a second thought.Ms. Gudenkauf writes her story from the POV of five of the main characters within the story. Holly, a mother of two wonderful children who is in the hospital recovering from severe burns from an accident; Augie, Holly’s daughter; Mrs. Oliver a teacher at the school where Augie and her brother, P.J. attend; Will, Augie’s Grandfather and Holly’s Father and Meg, one of the town’s Police Officers. If not done correctly, all of these POV changes could easily have been disastrous; however this is not the case. The changes are seamless and truly lend to the effect of the story.One Breath Away begins in such a captivating way that it truly grabbed me from the very beginning and beckoned me to continue reading. I became emotionally involved with each of these characters; gripping the book from tension and feeling my heart skip in anxiety and nervousness. Being a mother of two younger children, myself, both school-aged, I could relate to the terror of such a thing happening. Gut-wrenching and soul searing to the extreme.Within this story, the author takes us into each of the main character’s lives – using flashbacks of past occurrences that make the characters the people they are, incidents that shaped them into the individuals that will affect how they handle the terror of what happens when a school is taken hostage one snow-stormy day in a small town of Iowa. I think that my favorite character would have to be Augie. She is so strong and courageous, unwilling to leave her younger brother behind to save herself. Augie will do anything to protect him and her countless selfless acts endured me strongly to her.Told in vivid detail, One Breath Away is a story filled with twists and turns and several surprises. I honestly thought that I had the gunman figured out several times, only to read a few pages later that I was totally and completely wrong – not to mentioned shocked with the reason that I was wrong. I loved how the author was able to do this. Heather Gudenkauf has an incredible talent which shines through in One Breath Away. The flow of the story was excellent, the detail and character development was wonderful and the fact that she has written a story that truly focuses on the truth of society makes this a gripping story that many readers will be able to relate to on many different levels. I cannot wait to read more works by this author and highly recommend One Breath Away to anyone looking for a true-to-life type of story that will hold them captive from the first page until the last.

[sugarcreekranch · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

One Breath Away is a suspenseful story about a gunman holding hostages in a rural K-12 school.This story is not focused on the perpetrator. It is much more about the effect of the incident on the victims and bystanders. It's told from several characters' points of view: a teacher, a student, a grandparent, and a police officer. The gunman's identity is a mystery to be revealed, and a few of the characters fear that it could be someone close to them. This is one of those books that you can't put down until you know how it ends.Disclosure: Free galley from netgalley.com

[tfs93 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

***Spoiler Alert***I seriously had several thoughts about who "it" was. Once again Gudenkauf kept me guessing right up until the end. At the part in the story where the gun goes off I totally thought that Verna was doing the shooting and shooting who she thought was Ray. Oh my, I was way off on several of my guesses. Several times I was thinking, "wait, don't switch characters, I have to know what happens!". Once again Ms. Gudenkauf's superb writing had me on the edge of my seat throughout the story. I loved Mrs. Oliver and she is a character I won't soon forget. Bravo Ms. Gudenkauf. I believe this may just be my favorite yet! If you promise to keep writing, I promise to keep reading!!

[thelostentwife · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's been a while since a good suspense novel kept me up until the wee hours of the morning (suspense in the last few years just hasn't been my thing) - but One Breath Away by Heather Gudenkauf did the trick last night.I'm always worried when I begin a book and I'm tossed from perspective to perspective, especially at the beginning when the strange names keep appearing at the top of each chapter and I have no way of knowing how many there will be. So let me just tell you so you are saved the worry I had, there are five. Five people through which this story is told, and each with their own unique twists on it all.The summary states that this is a book about a gunman in a school - but it's more than that as well. It's also a story about relationships, particularly examining those between parents and their children. What's unfortunate is that, due to the high suspense and need to keep the story moving, there's very little resolution in that area, and the resolution that is there is a bit choppy and uneven. However, the books main purpose is to put us, the readers, into the shoes of those living through one of the most horrifying things imaginable. Children held at gunpoint - and we're told this from the perspective of one of the children, a teacher, a police officer, a grandfather, and a mother. I remember reading The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf a few years ago and how deeply it affected me, and while it was good, I think One Breath Away tugged at me even more so. Maybe it was my Iowa roots being affected, or maybe it was the lateness of the night/earlyness of the morning - but one thing is undeniable: I couldn't put this one down.

[heatherms · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"One Breath Away" by Heather Gudenkauf is about a gunman who enters an elementary school in a small town and holds the kids hostage. The story is narrated through the teacher in the classroom, Evelyn Oliver, the cop whose daughter goes to that school, Meg, the grandfather who recently put his two kids in the school, and his 13 year old granddaughter. On top of it all, they are unable to get outside help due to a snowstorm.I liked the story. It was interesting to see how people were reacting to the situation: the teacher who wants to protect her students at any cost, the cop whose daughter would have been in that classroom if she hadn't decided to let her go see her dad a day early, the grandfather who promised to protect his grandchildren while their mother is recovering from a serious accident, and the 13 year old who has an attitude but is willing to do what is needed to protect her younger brother.

[bookworm_naida · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

One Breath Away is an emotional novel about how a community deals with a horrific act. The story takes place on a snowy day in a small town in Iowa on the last school day before Spring break. A gunman has entered the school and as word gets out, horrified parents are pooled outside along with police and reporters. Most of the town's children up through age eighteen are held captive inside, since the school condenses grades k-12. To make matters worse, a blizzard is in full effect and the extra police help needed may not even make it in time.At first, due to the subject matter, I didn't know how I would fare reading this book.I wondered "why am I doing this to myself?" as I read. This book is emotional to say the least, and more so because I am a mother of two.Author Heather Gudenkauf really drew me in and I found myself unable to put this book down for the first hundred pages or so. The book is told from a few different points of view. Police officer and mother Meg, grandfather Will, third grade teacher Mrs Oliver and eight grade student Augie, are some of the characters that we see the story through.The characters are well developed and as they narrate, we get flashbacks and their previous memories. I have to mention, I had a hard time telling the two moms Holly and Meg apart. Since the book switches back and forth from different narrators, I had to keep checking to see which mom was which. One mother is a cop, the other is lying in a hospital bed, but I still found myself mixing them up.Eight grader Augie gives up the chance at freedom as some of the children are able to sneak out of the school, but because her little brother P.J. is still somewhere inside, she refuses to leave him. Moments like these invested me in the story and its characters.The gunman winds up in Mrs. Oliver's third grade classroom and as she tries to bargain with him in order to try and protect her students, I got the chills reading. She thinks back on her forty years of teaching and swears she will not die on this day. Speaking of Mrs. Oliver, I liked her character the most. Especially when she wears a tacky bedazzled denim dress that one of her students gifted her, just to please her student.About halfway through the book, I felt the story lost its momentum a bit. The scenes from inside the school were suspenseful, especially from Mrs. Oliver's point of view since the gunman was in her classroom. However, in between the flashbacks and the trying to figure out the gunman's identity, my interested began to stray.Once the mid read hump passed, I couldn't put this book down again, I just had to know how it would all end. When the gunman's identity was revealed, I did think it was a bit of a far stretch. For some reason, it just didn't sit well with me. I have to say, for a story with this type of premise, it all ends well.Upon reading more about the author I learned that she was on campus at her university one day when a gunman entered a classroom and shot several students then killed himself. This tragic event moved her to write this emotional story. I teared up a bit as I read some scenes, mostly because of the children. I think that's the mark of a good author, one that will evoke emotion in a reader. Although I had some issues with One Breath Away, I still enjoyed it overall.This is a tense and heavy read and I recommend it if you're looking for a story that will affect you as you turn the pages. All in all, I enjoyed Heather Gudenkauf's style of writing and her storytelling was intriguing. I would definitely want to read this author again.

[lesliewright34 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I was so excited when this book became available through PBS that as soon as I received it, I read it. I had read the other two books by this author and remember enjoying them. I was sadly disappointed in this book. Having worked through a school tragedy myself, I found the reaction of the characters unrealistic and sometimes downright silly. I thought that the book started off slowly and never really picked up pace. There was so much background information about the characters that took away from the premise of the story - it seemed to backfire and essentially kept me from connecting with any of the characters. With that said, there were some underlying storylines that I thought were left unfinished that having been addressed thoroughly would have added excitement to the story. It was very predictable - even determining who the gunman was was an easy task. I'm sorry to say that I wouldn't recommend this book.

[shelleyraec · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Keeping the tension high with short chapters, shifts in perspective and a situation that every parent dreads in the wake of Columbine and similar school tragedies, Gudenkauf has written a pacy suspense thriller that kept me turning the pages into the early hours of the morning.In small town Iowa, a gunman holds a school hostage. Outside a blizzard rages while the police scramble to identify the man and prevent a massacre. Thousands of miles away a mother receives a phone call, "He has a gun."The present tense narrative unfolds through the first person viewpoints of Augie, a thirteen year old girl, whose brother, PJ is a hostage in the third grade classroom, Holly, Augie and PJ's mother who is thousands of miles away in hospital recovering from severe burns after a house fire, and Officer Meg Barrett who is doing everything she can to ensure the safety of the school children. A third person narrative reveals the thoughts and actions of Will Thwaite, the grandfather of Augie and PJ who waits helplessly to learn the fate of his grandchildren, and Mrs Oliver, the third grade teacher who is confined with her class of 8 year olds and the gunman, terrified but determined to protect her students at any cost. The multiple perspectives reveals what is happening within and outside the school and allows the author to provide the background of the characters caught up in the nightmare, so that their motivations make sense in the midst of the crisis.Gudenkauf uses subtle misdirection to conceal the identity of the gunman, with several suspects and possible motives in the frame creating a strong element of mystery. The motive of the hostage taker is also hidden until the last few pages which plays into the tension. It is suspense that drives the novel, what is unknown about the situation and what is possible. There are flashes of violence but really it is simple fear for the characters that sustains the tension.One Breath Away is a taut, compelling novel of suspense that had me hooked from the first page.

[hjvanderklis_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It was my first novel from New York Times bestselling author Heather Gudenkauf that I read. What happens when a man enters a school in a place in Iowa on a cold winter day and takes a class and their teacher into hostage, without explicit demands? One Breath Away explores the family ties, suspicions about possible actors and victims, the actions and movements in and outside the school building. The composition is brilliant. Instead of a whodunnit crime fiction setup, time gets by through the lenses of all involved. They all tell snippets from their viewpoints in short chapters. As a reader you’re constantly aware of actually not much happening, though the tension of the outcome of this story stays to the last page.Meet Holly in the hospital bed, lucky to be absent from school. What will her father Will, armed and eager to save his grandchildren Augie & P.J. do in school? Is it a father looking for his children? Augie’s dad? Will the teacher, mrs. Evelyn Oliver be brave enough to be remembered about her rescue, or will she fail? And what’s the role of Meg Barrett, a local police officer trying to resuce her daughter? Without revealing the whole plot, I’d definitely recommend reading this beautiful woven tapestry of thoughts and immobility, one breath away from either a successful rescue or a tragedy. The book contains questions for your reading group to unearth hidden motives and points to relate to your personal circumstances, plus an interview with the author and a preview of These Things Hiden.

[pamv-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Heather Heather Heather! You did another awesome job with your newest book. I absolutely loved the story and the way it was written.

The story is about a gunmen that goes into a school. Who is he? Why did he choose the classroom that he chose?

You will find the answer to these questions and more by the end of the book. Each chapter features a character telling the story of what is happening at the same moment in time. I just love this style of writing that Gudenkauf uses. Just as the chapter is coming to an end and you are about to learn something huge we switch characters. OOOOOOOOHHHHHH, it works so well in keeping you in suspense and on the edge of your seat.

Great book, great story telling and I highly recommend this to all.

A heartfelt thank you to Net Galley and Mira Publishing for an "advanced readers copy". This book will be released on June 19, 2012

[kimkimkim-7 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I loved the structure and the pace of this book. It was difficult to put it down.

[teresa1953_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Set amid a snowy March backdrop, this is Heather Gudenkauf's third novel. I really enjoy her writing which reminds me so much of Jodi Picoult's in it's style.The book begins with Holly, who is lying in a hospital bed in Revelation, Arizona, recovering from serious burns from a house fire. Her daughter Augie and son PJ have been sent away to stay with their maternal grandparents in Broken Branch, Iowa, whilst Holly is hospitalised. Holly receives a terrifying phone call from Augie telling her she is holed up in their school and a mad man with a gun is holding them and some other children hostage.Fast paced, the story, which is told from five different perspectives, brings the clever plotline together. Holly's is obviously told from a distance and we learn of her strict uprbringing which alienated her from her father. She never wanted to return to Broken Branch and is distraught that her children have been sent there. Augie's story is central to the plot and she shows a maturity beyond her years in her care of her half brother and school friends. Will, Holly's father, ponders on what the world is coming to and despite the fact he hasn't spoken to his daughter in fifteen years, before the fire which destroys her home, his uncharacteristic care and concern is touching. Meg, a local police officer tells her tale from the law enforcement angle and my favourite character is Mrs Oliver, PJ's class teacher.....way over retirement age....but loves her calling so much that she can't bear to leave her children, she is one gutsy woman.The identity of the gunman, much speculated on, remains a mystery until right at the end and I didn't see it coming.The chapters are short...which makes this a quick and highly enjoyable read. A good one to pack in your suitcase if you are chasing the sun....sadly gone AWOL in the UK this year!

[rettaryan · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

After reading the blurb I was excited about reading this book, but once I got into it I wasn't so impressed. Each chapter is told from a different characters perspective- I HATE THIS!!The story is jumbled all around with no clear idea on where the story is going. In the end it wasn't as good as what the blurb made it out to be.

[stillwaters12 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I ordered this book and when it arrived, I was unable to read the story of a school lock-down because of the Sandy Hook killings. Finally, I took it on and I'm glad I did. Heather Gudenkauf is a new author to me and I will read all of her books now. Told by several children and adults, the story avoids being gruesome by letting the reader see the lock-down from several angles and provides a nice character study. Not a downer at all, I highly recommend One Breath Away.

[cats57_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One Breath Away by Heather GudenkaufYou reach about the sixth paragraph and read (paraphrased) -- “I love you Mom.”“I’m at school….He has a gun. He has PJ and he has a gun.” “I’m in a closet. He put me in a closet.” Then you hear gunshots.Now mind you the Mom who is hearing this is in the hospital in Arizona with horrible burns, under heavy sedation and is over 1000 miles away from the school in Iowa where her son and daughter are being held hostage. This is the story of the people of Broken Branch and what they endured on this snow filled spring day just before the kids spring vacation.. This is really is a story as seen through the eyes of the main 7 or 8 characters. These people range from one of the hostages, the police, grandparents etcetera.I really hate using a cliché, but this cliché is so apt - I could NOT put this book down. I even took it into the powder room with me. I have never before read this author I have never even heard of her, but I will be interested in seeing if her past books are as riveting as this one.This book is filled with taut suspense, excellent timing, vivid characters and a story that is less a suspense novel, than it is a horror novel. After all what could be more horrible than a possible massacre at a school filled with kids? The dialogue was realistic and using so many people as possible suspects was exciting. The only issue I had with the plot line was why the FBI or the IBI couldn’t get there to help, it was a hostage situation after all…damn the weather!The author did manage to eventually work that out in the story and the book ended on a wonderful note.As far as reviewers and even her press review excerpts are comparing this author to Jodi Picoult…I wouldn’t know since I’ve never read that author. However, I don’t think we should be making comparisons between them. I think that this author is most likely in a league of her own. *ARC SUPPLIED BY PUBLISHER*

[dhaupt_8 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Heather Gudenkauf has amazed me before with her poignant and oftentimes difficult to read novels, but this time she goes above and beyond with this tale of the worst nightmare that, a school, parents, teachers and a town should ever endure. She had me gritting my teeth and holding my breath from the first page had me so entranced that I read it in one sitting. She brought me characters that had my sympathy, my empathy and my respect from the beginning and by the end I knew each one intimately. Her storyline is one that you could easily find on any media source local or national and as she tells her main tale she intersperses mini stories of the lives and challenges of her amazing characters and in doing so makes stars of them all. Her narrative is succinct and pull no punches and her dialogue gives perfect voices to her players.If you’re looking for a novel with substance and depth, a read that will make you think and relish the quote “there for the grace of God go I” this is your one Must Read of the summer.In a small farming community in Iowa disaster is about to strike on the last day of school before spring break. With a snow storm brewing and temperatures falling to frigid a desperate man walks into the Broken Branch K-12 school building and begins his reign of terror. More than a thousand miles away a woman is painfully recovering from burns suffered from a fire who thought sending her children to her childhood home in Broken Branch Iowa would be safe and has no idea what awaits them. A local policewoman dreads time off without her daughter not knowing what her last day on the job before vacation will be bringing her. A grandfather struggling caring for his grandchildren who were virtual strangers has no idea what he or they will face this day. A third grade teacher is about to learn what sacrifice really is. An angry misplaced teen right in the middle of it all will learn about bravery. All these people will be connected in a way that no person should ever have to experience and “One Breath Away” is all it takes to change these lives forever.

[lois2ann2sovey · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Debated on reading this with the world being what it is but she really roped me in and made me care. Recommended this to my school teacher daughter. A must read.

[shayanasha · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Before I read this book I had heard comparisons of Gudenkauf's with Jodi Picoult's works. I must admit that was the main reason why I wanted to read this book in the first place. I am a big fan of Picoult, but I have to say Heather Gudenkauf's writing is a different world in itself.

The book started off a bit slow - not a bad slow, but slow in the sense that she was letting us get familiar with the setting and characters for quite a while before moving on with the progression of the story. I was hooked by the writing. The alternating point of view did not put me off or disturbed the flow of the book for me. All the characters were flawed, but real. It was refreshing to read and I was constantly on the edge.

This is my first book by the author, but I am pretty sure it will not be the only one. I liked the way she tackled the issues in the book and let the stories of all the different characters merge together. It was a subtle but compelling thriller and I absolutely loved it.

A well deserved 5 stars!

This ebook was provided to me by the publishers in exchange of an honest review

[bp0128bd · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

a little too Jodi Picoult for me.

[olegalca · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Not nearly as good as her other two books. The subject matter is sensationalism and the characters are poorly drawn. You don't hear enough of any one character's story to make you care about the situation they are in and by the end, you are just happy to know the identity of the mysterious gunman so you can move on to something else.

[jayne_charles_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the suspenseful account of an emergency at a school in a rural community in the USA. Through short, punchy chapters, the story is told from the point of view of various characters: teachers and pupils being held hostage by a gunman, and those waiting for news outside. It is well written and very readable, the sort of thing you pick up and cannot put down. I was pretty sure I had guessed the identity of the guy with the gun, but the author had fooled me totally.

[nrturner_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The publisher requested United Kingdom reviewers. After reading the blurb, I was interested enough to sign up. I soon received a 7-week ebook loan. The text is written in American English.

The narrative is delivered in short sections from the perspective of each character in turn. Conveniently, section titles reveal the narrator of each section. The narrative follows the spread of news and events when an unknown gunman walks into a school, holding pupils and staff hostage. Prose written in a personal vocal style can be awkward but I soon got used to it.

Once you get into the flow, the story is engrossing. I read two-thirds in one night.

As a family drama, One Breath Away is believable and compelling. Showing relationships from each side effectively conveys insights. I found the details of family life on an isolated livestock farm consistent with my own experiences.

At first I was frustrated by the suspense of wondering who is the gunman? and why doesn't he start shooting immediately? Although the first-person narrative never gives voice to the gunman, all things are explained in time. In his mind he wasn't an indiscriminate killer - he wanted to kill a specific child in specific circumstances. The gunman appeared to phone or text an associate, but those were messages to a victim the gunman wished to hurt.