A Maiden's Grave

by Jeffery Deaver

Overview

A bus full of children is taken hostage in this "screaming hit" (The New York Times Book Review) from the author of The Never Game and The Bone Collector.

Along a windswept Kansas road, eight vulnerable girls and their helpless teachers are forced off a school bus and held hostage in an abandoned slaughterhouse. The madman who has them at gunpoint has a simple plan: One hostage an hour will die unless the demands are met.

Called to the scene is Arthur Potter, the FBI's best hostage negotiator. He has a plan. But so does one of the hostages--a beautiful teacher who's willing to do anything to save the lives of her students. Now the clock is ticking as a chilling game of cat and mouse begins.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780451466297
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	02/04/2014
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	464
Sales rank:	297,665
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jeffery Deaver is the #1 international bestselling author of more than thirty novels, three collections of short stories, and a nonfiction law book. His books are sold in 150 countries and translated into 25 languages. His first novel featuring Lincoln Rhyme, The Bone Collector, was made into a major motion picture starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. He's received or been shortlisted for a number of awards around the world. A former journalist, folksinger, and attorney, he was born outside of Chicago and has a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri and a law degree from Fordham University.

Hometown:

Washington, D.C.

Date of Birth:

May 6, 1950

Place of Birth:

Chicago, Illinois

Education:

B.A., University of Missouri; Juris Doctor, cum laude, Fordham University School of Law

Website:

http://www.jefferydeaver.com/

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“A screaming hit.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Compelling suspense…a chilling web of madness and violence…an all-night page-turner.’”—San Francisco Chronicle

“Starts with a bang, and the tension never lets up. A top-notch thriller with an unexpected kicker at the end.”—Library Journal

“Heartbreakingly real characters…multiple-whammy twists…[a] spectacular finish. Deaver brilliantly conveys the tensions and deceit of hostage negotiations.”—Publishers Weekly

Steve Martini

"Wonderful, riverting, vivid...rings with an atmosphere of haunting realism."

Editorial Reviews

It's said that great minds think alike; apparently great thriller writers do too. Here's the second outstanding novel in as many months to see a busload of schoolchildren kidnapped by maniacs. The first was Mary Willis Walker's Under the Beetle's Cellar (Forecasts, June 12); Deaver's is equally gripping, with the added twist that these kids are deaf. In rural Kansas, an act of kindness launches a nightmare when Mrs. Harstrawn, along with hearing-impaired apprentice teacher Melanie Charrol, stops her busload of deaf schoolgirls at a car wreck, only to be taken hostage by Lou Handy and two other stone-cold killers who've just escaped from prison. Pursued by a state trooper, the captors race with their prey to an abandoned slaughterhouse. There, Arthur Potter, the FBI's foremost hostage negotiator, sets up a command post-but the nightmare intensifies when Handy releases one girl, then shoots her in the back just as she reaches the agent. After further brutalities, Melanie decides to rescue her students herself, tricking the killers with sign language games to convey her plan to her charges. Meanwhile, pressure mounts on Potter as the media get pushy, the local FBI stonewalls, Kansas State hostage rescue units try an end run to grab the glory and an assistant attorney general butts in. Deaver (Praying for Sleep) brilliantly conveys the tensions and deceit of hostage negotiations; he also proves a champion of the deaf, offering poetic insight into their world. Throughout, heartbreakingly real characters keep the wildly swerving plot from going off-track, even during the multiple-whammy twists that bring the novel, Deaver's best to date, to its spectacular finish. 200,000 first printing; $200,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild featured alternate; film rights to Interscope Communications; simultaneous Penguin Audiobook; author tour. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

A bus carrying eight deaf children and their teachers stops in the middle of the Kansas countryside, a car wreck directly ahead. Soon, three escaped killers rise out of the nearby cornfields and take children and teachers hostage. Pursued by the police, the convicts are forced to hole up in an abandoned slaughterhouse. There they threaten to shoot a child every hour until their demands are met. A 12-hour war of wits begins between FBI hostage expert Arthur Potter and the escapees' leader, Louis Jeremiah Handy. "I aim to get outta here. ...If it means I gotta shoot 'em dead as posts then that's the way it's gonna be," Handy boasts. Potter finds himself "in the middle of the week's media big bang," battling publicity-hungry politicians, trigger-happy cops, and the press as well as the unpredictable killers. This book by the best-selling author of Praying for Sleep (Viking, 1994) starts with a bang, and the tension never lets up. A topnotch thriller with an unexpected kicker at the end. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/95.]David Keymer, California State Univ., Stanislaus

Library Journal

Praise for A Maiden’s Grave

“A screaming hit.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Compelling suspense...a chilling web of madness and violence...an all-night page-turner.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“Starts with a bang, and the tension never lets up. A top-notch thriller with an unexpected kicker at the end.”—Library Journal

“Heartbreakingly real characters…multiple-whammy twists...[a] spectacular finish. Deaver brilliantly conveys the tensions and deceit of hostage negotiations.”—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher