Out of the Black - Softcover

Rector, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1477805044 ISBN 13: 9781477805046

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer, 2013

Synopsis

To keep the light of his life, he’ll have to do some dark things.

After Matt Caine loses his wife in a car accident, all he has left is his daughter, Anna. But just as the little girl―who survived the accident―finally starts thriving, Matt’s former in-laws threaten to take her away via a bitter custody battle. Desperate to keep Anna and in debt to some dangerous local thugs, Matt has no good options. But he does have Jay, one very bad friend.

Just out of jail and plagued by drug addiction, Jay tempts Matt with a foolproof kidnapping scheme. But what sounds like the perfect solution to all his problems eventually leads Matt through a nightmarish maze of betrayals and reversals, pushing him to his breaking point―and beyond. Now, with his entire life hanging in the balance, Matt makes a pledge of brutal payback.

About this title

About the Author

John Rector is the bestselling author of the novels Lost Things, The Grove, The Cold Kiss, and the 2012 International Thriller Award nominated Already Gone. He resides in Omaha, Nebraska.

Reviews

Matt Caine is an unemployed widower who makes some bad decisions in this dark caper novel from Rector (Already Gone; The Grove), a rising star in the thriller genre. A sketchy friend convinces Matt there’s easy money (to pay off the loan sharks he borrowed from for his daughter’s medical bills) in kidnapping a rich man’s wife. Unfortunately, the rich man is a dangerous mobster, and things rapidly spin out of control. Soon Matt finds himself depending on friends from a past he thought he’d left behind and considering acts of violence more suited to the marine he once was than the single father he is now. Oh, and his late wife’s parents think they’ll do a better job of raising his daughter than he will so they are contemplating suing for custody. Verdict: Written in a spare, laconic style reminiscent of Elmore Leonard or Robert B. Parker, this fast-moving, bleak thriller driven by the economic realities of modern America will appeal to fans of suspense fiction from the grittier side of the mean streets.

Home from Afghanistan, former marine Matt Caine lost his wife in a car accident. His daughter, Anna, was grievously injured. He has mountainous medical bills and a daughter who needs special care that he can’t afford, and the only work he can find is day labor. His wife’s parents are suing him to gain custody of Anna. He borrows money from locally notorious loan sharks, and then he makes an even more disastrous mistake: he agrees to help Jay, a childhood friend who is just out of jail, kidnap the wife of the richest man in the city. The snatch collapses midway when Jay fatally OD’s. Matt then learns that Anna has been abducted and that the rich man is not the easy mark Jay described. Once again, Rector (The Cold Kiss, 2010) focuses on an ordinary man buffeted by a torrent of stresses; and once again, Rector’s spare, sly style propels the story and allows readers to deduce that however much Matt loves Anna, he isn’t action-hero material. Out of the Black is a crime tale very well told. --Thomas Gaughan

Edition details

• Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1477805044
• ISBN 13: 9781477805046
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 250