The Wrong Hostage: A Novel - Hardcover

Lowell, Elizabeth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060829818 ISBN 13: 9780060829810

Publisher: Avon, 2006

Synopsis

The latest masterwork from one of the leading writers of suspense . . . New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Lowell returns with a chilling tale of the law gone wrong and a kidnapping that threatens more than one life.

The Wrong Hostage

Orphaned at thirteen, Grace Silva clawed her way out of poverty and violence to become one of the most respected judges on the federal bench. Grace believes in the rule of law -- lives it, breathes it. She has always been buttoned up and buttoned down.

Except once.

Joe Faroe has learned that laws are made by politicians, and politicians are all too human. He believes in the innocents, the ones getting ground up by governments that are too polarized or too corrupt to protect their own citizens. He's been through the political meat grinder himself. It cost him his career, his freedom, and the woman who still haunts him. Since then Faroe has worked outside the rules and politics of government as a kidnap specialist for St. Kilda Consulting, a Manhattan-based global business that concentrates on the shadow world where governments can't go. He is good at his work -- intelligent, confident, ruthless.

Until a friend dies trying to kill him.

Now Faroe is out of the business. Retired. He's through trying to save a world that doesn't want to be saved.

Then Grace comes to him, past and present collide, and Faroe finds himself sucked back into the shadows, tracking a violent killer who holds the life of Grace's son in his bloody hands.

About this title

About the Author

New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Lowell has more than eighty titles published to date with over twenty-four million copies of her books in print. She lives in the Sierra Nevada Mountains with her husband, with whom she writes novels under a pseudonym. Her favorite activity is exploring the Western United States to find the landscapes that speak to her soul and inspire her writing.

From the Back Cover

The latest masterwork from one of the leading writers of suspense . . . New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Lowell returns with a chilling tale of the law gone wrong and a kidnapping that threatens more than one life.

The Wrong Hostage

Orphaned at thirteen, Grace Silva clawed her way out of poverty and violence to become one of the most respected judges on the federal bench. Grace believes in the rule of law -- lives it, breathes it. She has always been buttoned up and buttoned down.

Except once.

Joe Faroe has learned that laws are made by politicians, and politicians are all too human. He believes in the innocents, the ones getting ground up by governments that are too polarized or too corrupt to protect their own citizens. He's been through the political meat grinder himself. It cost him his career, his freedom, and the woman who still haunts him. Since then Faroe has worked outside the rules and politics of government as a kidnap specialist for St. Kilda Consulting, a Manhattan-based global business that concentrates on the shadow world where governments can't go. He is good at his work -- intelligent, confident, ruthless.

Until a friend dies trying to kill him.

Now Faroe is out of the business. Retired. He's through trying to save a world that doesn't want to be saved.

Then Grace comes to him, past and present collide, and Faroe finds himself sucked back into the shadows, tracking a violent killer who holds the life of Grace's son in his bloody hands.

Reviews

A mother's worst nightmare of an endangered child is just one breathless element of Lowell's latest romantic thriller (after Always Time to Die). Newly divorced California judge Grace Silva discovers her billionaire ex-husband, Ted Franklin, is missing, after she's summoned to the exclusive Mexican prep school where her 15-year-old computer whiz son, Lane, is being held hostage. Ted has crossed Hector Rivas Osuna, the ruthless kingpin of the most violent crime family in Tijuana, and Grace learns that Lane will be killed if she doesn't turn over the millions Ted has stolen from Osuna. She seeks the help of Joe Faroe, an ex who predated Ted and who may be Lane's biological father; Joe works for an elite private investigation firm. Lowell's convincing depiction of the Mexican drug trade illuminates the dangerous intersection of her characters' personal lives with international politics and organized crime. Events unfold in a maze of talk and double-talk, but the payoff is solid as the family reunites, finding that both love and the price of freedom are nonnegotiable. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

When federal judge Grace Silva's teenage son Lane Franklin is taken hostage, Grace knows the only man who can help her is Joe Faroe, the very same man Grace spent a passionate weekend with 16 years ago before she helped send him to jail. Lane is being held prisoner in All Saints School, a private Catholic high school in Mexico, by drug lord Hector Rivas Osuna, the "Butcher of Tijuana," who is demanding the return of money "stolen" from him by his former business associate and Grace's ex-husband, Ted Franklin. The problem is that Grace has not heard from Ted in more than three weeks, and time is running out for Lane. With no other options available, Grace contacts Joe, a former kidnap specialist, hoping he can be persuaded to forget their past differences and rescue Lane before it is too late. A New York Times best-selling author, Lowell brilliantly mingles danger, deception, and desire to create a captivating story that is edgy, sexy, and completely satisfying. With its superbly defined protagonists and high-octane, white-knuckle plot, this is romantic suspense at its best. John Charles
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Wrong Hostage

A NovelBy Elizabeth Lowell

HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Copyright ©2006 Elizabeth Lowell
All right reserved.
ISBN: 0060829818

Chapter One

Southern California
La Jolla
Saturday morning

The phone rang four times before Judge Grace Silva pulled her head out of the legal documents she was reviewing.

Maybe it's Ted.

Finally.

It had been years since she'd cared about her husband -- newly ex-husband -- in any way but as the father of her child. And if there was a persistent personal sadness that she'd failed in marriage, well, she'd just have to live with it. She'd worked hard to make the divorce and all the legalities entailed as civilized and adult as possible.

For Lane.

But she was real tired of getting calls at all times of the day and night asking for Theodore Franklin. Just because he'd kept his legal address as the beach home they'd once shared didn't mean he actually lived with her.

"Hello," Grace said.

"Ah, señora," said a man's voice. "This is Carlos Calderón. I would like to speak to your husband."

Grace didn't bother to point out that Franklin was her ex. If Calderón wasn't close enough to Ted to know about the divorce, she had no reason to announce it.

"Ted isn't here," she said briskly. And he hasn't been here in three weeks, which you damn well should know because you or one of your employees has called every day. "Have you tried his Wilshire office, his cell phone, and his Malibu condo?" Or his bimbo mistress?

"Sí, yes, many times."

"Is it something I can help you with?"

Grace expected the same answer she'd gotten for the past three weeks -- a polite thanks but no thanks.

Instead Calderón sighed and said, "Judge Silva, I am afraid you must come to Ensenada immediately."

Her hand tightened on the phone. As a judge, she was accustomed to giving rather than taking orders. "Excuse me?"

"It is your son, Lane."

"What's wrong?" she asked quickly. "Is he in trouble? He's been so good for the -- "

"It is not something to be discussed over the telephone. I will see you in two hours."

"What's wrong?" she demanded.

"Good-bye, Judge Silva."

"Wait," she said. "Give me four hours. I don't know what traffic will be like at the border."

"Three hours."

The phone went dead.

Continues...

Excerpted from The Wrong Hostageby Elizabeth Lowell Copyright ©2006 by Elizabeth Lowell. Excerpted by permission.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Avon
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0060829818
• ISBN 13: 9780060829810
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 406