Adrenaline (Sam Capra) - Softcover

Jeff Abbott

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0751543292 ISBN 13: 9780751543292

Publisher: Sphere, 2010

Synopsis

Sam Capra is living the life of his dreams. A young American in London, he has a perfect flat, a perfect job with the CIA and a perfect wife, Lucy - who is seven months pregnant with their first child.

But one sunny day, it all goes up in flames. Sam receives a call from Lucy while he's at work. She tells him to leave the building immediately, which he does - just before it explodes, killing those inside. Lucy vanishes, and Sam wakes up in a prison cell.

Why did Lucy call him? Was she a loving spouse or an enemy operative? Is Sam's unborn child safe? Adrenaline coursing through his veins, Sam enters a frantic race to save his life and discover the truth about those he thought he knew so well...

About this title

Review

Amazon Best Books of the Month, July 2011: CIA agent, Sam Capra, is about to have an extremely bad morning. We’re not talking about I-just-spilled-coffee-on-my-chinos bad. We’re talking about terrorists-bombed-my-office-and-kidnapped-my-wife bad. Sam is in the middle of an important meeting—he’s been closing in on the CIA’s most important target—when he’s interrupted by an urgent call from his pregnant wife, Lucy. There’s panic in her voice. “Meet me outside now,” she begs. In the street, Sam sees Lucy in a silver grey sedan with a strange man in the driver’s seat. Then a blast hits. In a flash, all of Sam’s colleagues are dead. Lucy’s gone. Sam’s the only survivor. And we’re only on page twelve. What follows is a breakneck thriller that delivers on the promise of its title. Adrenaline does indeed get the heart pumping with an exhilarating pace, creatively choreographed action, and intrigue that routinely compels you to read the proverbial “one more chapter.” But Sam Capra remains its most memorable asset. In his quest to find his family, Capra becomes the best kind of hero, one who’s highly capable at kicking ass, but who's also imbued with a large amount of heart, which makes him worth rooting for book after book. Fortunately, Jeff Abbott has promised us more.--Shane Hansanuwat

"If you knew this was our final day together, what would you say to me?"
"Anything but good-bye. I can't ever say good-bye to you."

ADRENALINE

Sam Capra is living the life of his dreams.

He's a brilliant young CIA agent, stationed in London. His wife Lucy is seven months pregnant with their first child. They have a wonderful home, and are deeply in love.

They have everything they could hope for...until they lose it all in one horrifying moment.

On a bright, sunny day, Sam receives a call from Lucy while he's at work. She tells him to leave the building immediately. He does...just before it explodes, killing everyone inside. Lucy vanishes, and Sam wakes up in a prison cell. As the lone survivor of the attack, he is branded by the CIA as a murderer and a traitor.

Escaping from the agency, Sam launches into a desperate hunt to save his kidnapped wife and child, and to reveal the unknown enemy who has set him up and stolen his family. But the destruction of Sam's life was only step on in an extraordinary plot-and now Sam must become a new kind of hero.

Author One-on-One: Jeff Abbott and Harlan Coben

In this Amazon.com exclusive, author Jeff Abbott is interviewed by thriller writer Harlan Coben about Adrenaline, characters with dark secrets, and how films influence the writing process.

Harlan Coben: Let's get right to it. You’ve created a new, iconic (or soon-to-be iconic) character in Sam Capra with the plan to turn this into a series: Why?

Jeff Abbott: My last four novels were standalone thrillers, but I had readers asking me every time if the main characters in those books would launch a series. So I decided I wanted to take what I'd learned in writing standalones--interesting (I hope) characters and lots of action and high emotional stakes--and apply it to a series. Sam Capra is a bit different from other suspense series heroes: he's younger (at 26), he's a husband and about-to-be father, and he's an ex-spy who can now operate free of agency rules and find his own dangers and challenges.

Harlan Coben: Did you choose to have Sam own bars just so you could travel the world and call it research? Because if you did, you're an evil genius and I want in.

Jeff Abbott: Well, an ex-spy needs a job, and I thought: what if Sam owned a lot of bars around the world? He could be like a globetrotting Rick Blaine, from Casablanca. I can instantly put Sam anywhere in the world, and I can introduce an interesting new cast in each book--or I can revisit characters and settings from earlier books. Bars are perfect places for lives to collide and intrigue to arise. And bars give us a way to connect personally, face to face, not in the digital way we all seem to find each other now. Unexpectedly cool: my readers sent me over thirty suggestions when I asked them, via my blog, to recommend their favorite London bars, and I visited several of those fine establishments. A hardy band from my British publisher bravely accompanied me on this quest. It's great how everyone volunteers to help me with this kind of research.

Harlan Coben: On the surface, Adrenaline (apt title, by the way) may be an international spy thriller--but what sets it apart, methinks, is that it is really a novel about family. You agree?

Jeff Abbott: You and I have always written about family and the secrets they hold. I know we are both very close to our families, and there was a long stretch in crime fiction where it seemed to be required that the main character be alienated from family. At the beginning of Adrenaline, Sam's seven-months pregnant wife vanishes, and Sam is accused of being a traitor and has to go on the run to find her. All he wants is his family back, and to know the truth about his wife: did she betray him, or was she taken from him? He needs to know if his family is based on love or on a lie. There is no greater emotional dynamite than family.

Harlan Coben: You know I love the partner in series fiction--Sherlock-Watson, Batman-Robin, Spenser-Hawk-- and you gave Sam a very strong one in Mila. She's, um, intense. Can you fill us in?

Jeff Abbott: So often the partner is the best friend to the hero--but Sam knows virtually nothing about Mila except what whisky she drinks and that she can help him find his family. She's tough and smart but she seems very alone in the world. A big part of the series will be finding out about her and her past; I love writing her scenes, for me it's often like a blurred photograph slowly coming into focus.

Harlan Coben: Because I’m always interested in the answer, let’s do the writer's chicken-egg question--which comes first, characters or plot?

Jeff Abbott: Usually for me, it's character, because every decision the characters make drives the plot. But if I think of an interesting situation first, a 'what if' that grabs me, and then can people it with characters I want to know more about, then that's fine, too. I don't think it always has to be one before the other.

Harlan Coben: You and I love to discuss (argue?) movies. We are often asked about literary influences, so let me turn that around a bit. Do films ever influence your writing?

Jeff Abbott: I never imagine the books as films, but I do tend to build the story in three acts, the way most movies are structured. If I get stuck on a book, I like to watch a good movie: a Hitchcock film, or a classic suspense film like Marathon Man or Chinatown. The story can be vastly different from what I'm writing, but just seeing the strong structure underlying the movie's story seems to clear my head and then I'm ready to go back to work.

About the Author

Jeff Abbott is the international-bestselling, award-winning author of eleven mystery and suspense novels. Jeff graduated from Rice University with a degree in History and English, and worked as a creative director at an advertising agency before writing full-time. A Texas native, he lives in Austin with his wife and two sons. You can visit his website at www.jeffabbott.com and follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/JeffAbbott.

Edition details

• Publisher: Sphere
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0751543292
• ISBN 13: 9780751543292
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 512