Named one of Library Journal's Best Books of 2017"Exceptional first novel."--Publishers Weekly, starred review"Will grip suspense aficionados from the first page."--Library Journal, starred review"A skillfully written, gripping thriller."--Booklist"Action-packed with breakneck pacing."--Foreword ReviewsWhen a day trip out of Las Vegas with his wife takes a turn for the worse, Jack is sure that he has the ability to get them home. But he drove into something far beyond reason.Rescue comes in the form of a desert hermit, but hope fades as the couple comes to realize that the nomad has no intention of letting them leave. A chance encounter with a kidnapped runaway and her crazed abductor leads them all farther into the wilderness--and closer to the cold brutality that isolation brings.At the edge of his sanity, Jack begins to learn that playing by another's rules may be the only way to survive.In a voice that is as hypnotizing as a desert mirage, debut novelist Samuel Parker entices readers down a dangerous road, where the forces of good and evil are as crushing as the Mojave heat. This is suspense in its purest, most unfiltered form.