In Desperation

By Rick Mofina

Eleven-year-old Tilly Martin is dragged from her suburban bedroom. Her mother, Cora, pleads for mercy but the kidnappers are clear: if they don't get their $5 million back in five days, Tilly dies. If anyone contacts police, Tilly dies.

Journalist Jack Gannon's estranged sister, Cora, disappeared without a trace decades ago. Now she is frantically reaching out to him for help. Cora tells him about the shameful mistakes she's made–but she guards the one secret that may be keeping her daughter alive.

A twenty-year-old assassin, haunted by the faces of the people he's executed, seeks absolution as he sets out to commit his last murders as a hired killer.

In the U.S. and Mexico, police and the press go flat out on Tilly's case. But as Gannon digs deeper into his anguished sister's past, the hours tick down on his niece's life and he faces losing a fragment of his rediscovered family forever.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: Feb 28, 2014
• ISBN: 9781472045966

Rick Mofina

Rick Mofina is a USA TODAY bestselling author of more than thirty crime fiction thrillers that have been published in nearly thirty countries. A former journalist, he has interviewed murderers on death row, flown over Los Angeles with the LAPD and patrolled with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police near the Arctic. He has also reported from the Caribbean, Africa, Kuwait and Qatar. He is a two-time winner of the Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence, a Barry Award winner, and a multiple finalist for the International Thriller Writers Thriller Award and the Shamus Award, presented by the Private Eye Writers of America. Library Journal calls him "one of the best thriller writers in the business."

[carol420 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Drug cartels, deep, dark, painful secrets, FBI, and a long lost brother all crash together to make this action packed story that will have you addicted from the first page. This was the first book I had ever read by this author. I will be looking for more. The story started out a little slow but picked up very quickly. I highly recommend this book and this author to anyone that likes crime and suspense stories.

[krystalsbooks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book was great. I truly enjoyed this read and I have started reading at a speedy pace wondering what other gems are on my to read list.

[smik_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

IN DESPERATION is #3 in Mofina's Jack Gannon series. I have reviewed the earlier ones ( VENGEANCE ROAD and THE PANIC ZONE ) but IN DESPERATION didn't grab me right at the start in quite the same way, although the snatching of Tilly is a horrifying opening hook.

The novel builds pace by adding plot element after element. Tilly's mother Cora "in desperation" contacts her long-lost brother journalist Jack Gannon who happens to be in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, working on a story about drug cartels. As it turns out, the contacts that Jack has made for this story are of great advantage in tracking down those responsible for Tilly's abduction. The story moves several times between Juarez and Phoenix Arizona where Cora and Tilly live.

As the story builds so does the tension, mainly around whether the police will find Tilly in time.

It is a novel that relies on coincidences but it is not on its own in that.