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Summary
Summary
In one hand, small-time crook Stokes holds a backpack stuffed with someone else's money--three hundred and fifty thousand dollars of it.
In the other hand, Stokes has a cell phone, which he found with the money. On the line, a little girl he doesn't know asks, "Daddy? Are you coming to get me? They say if you give them the money they'll let you take me home."
From bestselling author James Hankins comes a wrenching story of an unscrupulous man torn between his survival instincts and the plight of a true innocent. Faced with the choice, Stokes discovers his conscience might not be as corroded as he thought.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
This outstanding crime thriller from Hankins (Brothers and Bones) grabs the reader by the scruff of the neck and never lets go. When second-rate crook Stokes ransacks a wrecked car that's run off a country road near Shady Cross, Ind., he discovers that the dead driver had a knapsack stuffed with $350,000; the bad news is that Stokes also finds a ringing cell phone that announces the money was ransom for the dead man's little daughter. His first impulse is to ditch the phone and run with the cash. Instead, Stokes plays along with the kidnappers over the phone, trying to figure out their plan and save the child. He has no experience as a hero, and the new role forces him into situations that are deadly dangerous and grotesquely hilarious-while the kidnappers keep calling every hour to threaten the girl. Hankins skillfully keeps the story from going warm and fuzzy as Stokes gropes toward redemption. Agent: Michael Bourret, Dystel & Goderich Literary Management. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A low-level crook finds himself in the middle of a kidnapping plot and must choose whether to save a child or his own neck.Stokes isn't the kind of man you'd want to have a beer with; in fact, he'd probably steal your wallet at the end of the night. Hankins (Jack of Spades, 2013, etc.) goes to great lengths to paint the small-town criminal as some kind of neonoir antihero: He's gruff, practically monosyllabic, and his intentions are definitely not good. But instead of being endearingly villainousor even haplessly troubledStokes is merely a caricature of a "bad guy." After fleecing an out-of-towner for a round of drinks and all the cash in his wallet following a long night at the bar, Stokes takes a ride on his one prize possession, an expensive motorcycle, and inadvertently causes a wreck. The other drivera man Stokes later identifies as Paul Jenkinsis killed. In the car, Stokes finds a backpack full of cash$350,000 to be preciseand a cellphone. Since he owes one of the local loan sharksthe small Indiana town inexplicably has two$100,000, Stokes plans to pay off his debt and take off. Then the phone rings, and he realizes the money is ransom for Paul's 6-year-old daughter, Amanda. Trouble is, the kidnappers want the full amount. Stokes races around town against the clock to find another hundred grand, stumbling through a series of shockingly coincidental events. Even with a child in jeopardy, the tension here is entirely manufactured, and any sense of urgency is deflated early on when Hankins fails to render Stokes beyond tired stereotypes. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Antihero is too kind a term for Stokes. He's an ex-con; he robs the fellow on the next bar stool. He abandoned a wife and daughter because they were too much trouble. His last break-in may have left the householder dead. And he carries this fine, offbeat novel. The author's skill in bringing this off is magical, since Stokes is not an engaging rogue though his droll humor is evident and he's not a heel with a heart of gold like those Bogart characters. When he comes upon a backpack loaded with cash and learns it's to ransom a little girl who's being tortured, his immediate reaction is to blow town with the money, the hell with the kid. Fate intervenes, and Stokes is off on a twisty plot that brings him up against people some outwardly splendid who could give him lessons in baseness. As the narrative winds to its hurtful conclusion, we understand that by trying to rescue the girl, Stokes rescues himself. We also know we've read a novel crammed with crackling dialogue and characters who are, unfortunately, all too true to life.--Crinklaw, Don Copyright 2010 Booklist