Just two years out of law school, Nick Rey is on the career fast track at a hot Miami law firm, when he is suddenly plunged headfirst into a dangerous bid to save his father from a fate worse than death.

Nick's father, Matthew, is a courageous man—a risk taker, some say—who almost single-handedly built a small Miami fishing company into a successful Latin American seafood distributor. Then, while on business in Colombia's exotic port city of Cartagena, he vanishes. Three members on his fishing boat are murdered in cold blood, and Matthew is last seen in the hands of thugs brandishing machine guns. They demand a ransom of three million dollars, far more than the Rey family can ever hope to raise.

Fortunately, Matthew had purchased a kidnap-and-ransom insurance policy to protect against just such a threat. Unfortunately, the kidnappers seem to know all about the policy, and the insurance company, suspecting fraud, is refusing to pay out.

The situation couldn't be worse. The kidnappers know there's money, when in reality there's none. And any hope Nick holds out that the United States government will intervene on his father's behalf is dashed as well. The FBI has been monitoring Matthew's Colombian connections, and is more interested in furthering its own investigations than in rescuing Matthew.

With nowhere to turn, Nick links up with Alex, a street-smart and beguiling Colombian beauty who may be the only person capable of negotiating with Matthew's captors. For Nick, the treacherous highlands of Colombia are an unfamiliar battleground, but he soon discovers that the gravest dangers to him and his family are not the kidnappers and their guns, but the men in suits. Lawyers, to be exact, at a powerful firm with something to hide. And they will stop at nothing to keep Nick from unleashing the truth.

Critical Praise

"Terrifying . . . Grisham will probably wish he'd thought of it." -- Miami Herald

"A well-thought-out thriller." -- Booklist

"A page-turner." -- Library Journal

"Hits the bull's-eye . . . Grippando's premise . . . and his punchy plotting, build up a quick and enjoyable head of steam." -- Kirkus Reviews

"A taut, well-constructed page-turner that seems destined for the big screen." -- Publishers Weekly