Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Business and life are good and Josh Michaels thinks he has life by the tail. Procurement manager and happily married he is on the way home to his wife, Kate and their daughter, Abby. As is his habit, he drives down backcountry roads at higher than posted speeds for the sheer exhilaration of it all and the lack of people to interfere. He likes to push the edge and has gotten away with it in the past. That is until he is forced off the road by what initially appears to be a very reckless SUV driver. Josh's car goes airborne off the road right before a bridge and sails into the middle of the Sacramento River. Stunned by the impact but still alive Josh is faced with drowning as the car sinks because he can't swim. Trapped in the car as it slowly sinks, Josh sees the SUV driver standing on the bridge above him. Expecting help, he is horrified when the unknown driver gives him "a thumbs down gesture" reminiscent of the gladiators in the Roman Coliseum before driving away from the scene. Josh survives his near drowning experience and eventually tells his story to the Police while recovering in the hospital. Outright skeptical from the start of the investigation and with little to go on, the Police dismiss it as yet another road rage incident. The stalled investigation does get some media airplay and subsequently brings him unwanted attention from his past. His life as he knows it begins to dissolve as he is the target of killers who want him dead for only reasons they know and a blackmailer who hasn't made him suffer enough just yet. While the blackmailer works to end his relationship with his wife and child and to see him in jail, the killers want him dead. Slowly, Josh learns that he isn't the only target marked for death and that the blackmailer might be just the tip of the iceberg in regards to yet more problems. Other targets are being liquidated and the blackmailer is stepping up the pressure and Josh has lost all control over his life and may not be able to get any of it back. While over written at times in terms of dialogue and scene narration, this debut novel overall is extremely enjoyable. The main character, Josh Michaels, is complex and believable as is the supporting cast. This novel moves forward at a steady pace, despite the large number of pov shifts through the novel, which actually work well to bring deeper depth to the characters. Full of twists and turns, this novel is an intriguing look at one man's journey to the edge of the abyss where all hope is lost before being pulled back from the edge.