Terror and suspicion grip a small Minnesota town when a psychotic kidnapper plays a treacherous game with the life of a small boy.

Deer Lake, Minnesota, thought of itself as a safe, quiet community. The town's complacency is cruelly shattered the night eight-year-old Josh Kirkwood disappears after hockey practice.

As an ex-big-city detective, Police Chief Mitch Holt is all too familiar with the trauma of violent crime. Gutsy and determined, Megan O'Malley is trying to prove herself as the new regional officer of the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

The desperate search for the missing boy turns up few clues. As the investigation heats up, so does the relationship between Megan and Mitch.

(Jan., 540 pp., $5.99)

—Jill M. Smith