The Line Between: A Novel
In this frighteningly believable thriller from New York Times bestselling author Tosca Lee, an extinct disease re-emerges from the melting Alaskan permafrost to cause madness in its victims. For recent apocalyptic cult escapee Wynter Roth, it's the end she'd always been told was coming.

When Wynter Roth is turned out of New Earth, a self-contained doomsday cult on the American prairie, she emerges into a world poised on the brink of madness as a mysterious outbreak of rapid early onset dementia spreads across the nation.

As Wynter struggles to start over in a world she's been taught to regard as evil, she finds herself face-to-face with the apocalypse she's feared all her life-until the night her sister shows up at her doorstep with a set of medical samples. That night, Wynter learns there's something far more sinister at play and that these samples are key to understanding the disease.

Now, as the power grid fails and the nation descends into chaos, Wynter must find a way to get the samples to a lab in Colorado. Uncertain who to trust, she takes up with former military man Chase Miller, who has his own reasons for wanting to get close to the samples in her possession, and to Wynter herself.

Filled with action, conspiracy, romance, and questions of whom-and what-to believe, The Line Between is a high-octane story of survival and love in a world on the brink of madness.
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The Line Between: A Novel
In this frighteningly believable thriller from New York Times bestselling author Tosca Lee, an extinct disease re-emerges from the melting Alaskan permafrost to cause madness in its victims. For recent apocalyptic cult escapee Wynter Roth, it's the end she'd always been told was coming.

When Wynter Roth is turned out of New Earth, a self-contained doomsday cult on the American prairie, she emerges into a world poised on the brink of madness as a mysterious outbreak of rapid early onset dementia spreads across the nation.

As Wynter struggles to start over in a world she's been taught to regard as evil, she finds herself face-to-face with the apocalypse she's feared all her life-until the night her sister shows up at her doorstep with a set of medical samples. That night, Wynter learns there's something far more sinister at play and that these samples are key to understanding the disease.

Now, as the power grid fails and the nation descends into chaos, Wynter must find a way to get the samples to a lab in Colorado. Uncertain who to trust, she takes up with former military man Chase Miller, who has his own reasons for wanting to get close to the samples in her possession, and to Wynter herself.

Filled with action, conspiracy, romance, and questions of whom-and what-to believe, The Line Between is a high-octane story of survival and love in a world on the brink of madness.
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The Line Between: A Novel

The Line Between: A Novel

by Tosca Lee

Narrated by Cassandra Campbell

Unabridged — 10 hours, 7 minutes

The Line Between: A Novel

The Line Between: A Novel

by Tosca Lee

Narrated by Cassandra Campbell

Unabridged — 10 hours, 7 minutes

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Overview

In this frighteningly believable thriller from New York Times bestselling author Tosca Lee, an extinct disease re-emerges from the melting Alaskan permafrost to cause madness in its victims. For recent apocalyptic cult escapee Wynter Roth, it's the end she'd always been told was coming.

When Wynter Roth is turned out of New Earth, a self-contained doomsday cult on the American prairie, she emerges into a world poised on the brink of madness as a mysterious outbreak of rapid early onset dementia spreads across the nation.

As Wynter struggles to start over in a world she's been taught to regard as evil, she finds herself face-to-face with the apocalypse she's feared all her life-until the night her sister shows up at her doorstep with a set of medical samples. That night, Wynter learns there's something far more sinister at play and that these samples are key to understanding the disease.

Now, as the power grid fails and the nation descends into chaos, Wynter must find a way to get the samples to a lab in Colorado. Uncertain who to trust, she takes up with former military man Chase Miller, who has his own reasons for wanting to get close to the samples in her possession, and to Wynter herself.

Filled with action, conspiracy, romance, and questions of whom-and what-to believe, The Line Between is a high-octane story of survival and love in a world on the brink of madness.

Editorial Reviews

Patrick Lee

"A fast-paced and deeply human story. Tosca Lee has put together a terrifying apocalyptic scenario, made all the more real through the eyes of a protagonist who comes to life on the page."

Alex Kava

"Everything you want in a thriller: suspense, intrigue and best of all, a truly captivating protagonist to cheer on. Throw in a white-knuckled race from Chicago to Colorado over backroads that this author obviously and respectfully knows well. This one's a slam-dunk that'll keep you reading, non-stop until the very last sentence."

Steven James

A true wordsmith, Tosca has crafted another page-turner, a nonstop thrill ride that will leave you breathless.

Maria Frisk

"Wynter's daring escape draws the reader into a maze of intrigue and false realities, as a bona fide apocalypse grips humanity. This frighteningly topical page-turner from Tosca Lee is a wild ride that will leave you breathless."

Nancy Kilpatrick

"The Line Between is a nail-biter.... one horrific thriller fans will want to read. The conflicting urges rampant in the story resonate with our world today, making this both a great read as well as a cautionary tale."

Lydia Kang

"An utterly immersive tale of apocalyptic cult manipulation and all-too-possible infectious epidemics, this story will have readers holding their breath on every page and dearly wishing for their own basement survivalist shelter. Perfect, chilling entertainment."

Steena Holmes

"Tosca Lee nailed the twists and turns in this masterfully crafted thriller.

Jonathan Maberry

THE LINE BETWEEN blurs the line between science fiction and terrifying real science. Tosca Lee gives us a cautionary tale that is beautifully written and deeply unnerving!

Brenda Novak

Relevant and frighteningly real, The Line Between is an infectiously good read. Be prepared to lose sleep.

Nicole Baart

"The perfect blend of spellbinding and heart stopping, The Line Between is an absolute must-read. Tosca whips up a thriller that is emotionally wrenching yet utterly believable, the kind of story that is sure to leave readers breathless and begging for more."

K.J. Howe

"Shades of The Handmaid’s Tale and The Walking Dead blend together in an epic novel of depth and power. Tosca Lee’s The Line Between is a breathtaking story of a woman who rises above her own dark past to stop civilization from descending into madness. Brilliant.

Merrie Destefano

"THE LINE BETWEEN by Tosca Lee had me captivated from page one!... I give this book 5 stars and plan to keep it in my Bug Out Bag, along with my MREs, first aid kit and Swiss Army knife."

E. C. Diskin

"A tremendous thrill-ride that is sure to linger long after you turn the last page. With compelling and memorable characters, this is a true run-for-your-life, end-of-the-world, amazingly realistic tale full of twists and turns that will have your heart-pounding."

Midwest Book Review

"A deftly crafted dystopian novel showcasing author Tosca Lee's impressive flair for blending conspiracy and romance with action and paranoia level scepticism in an all too believable near future, THE LINE BETWEEN is one of those exceptional works of literature that will linger in the mind, memory, and nightmare dreams of the reader long after the book itself has been finished and set back upon the shelf."

J.D. Barker

"An edge-of-your-seat, nonstop, apocalyptic rollercoaster of a thriller! As only she can, Tosca Lee pulls the reader in and refuses to let go until the final heart-pounding page!"

Emily Carpenter

Smartly written, tautly paced, with an utterly irresistible protagonist, The Line Between is pure exhilaration on a page.

Booklist

"A tight, fast-paced thriller, with a winding, twisty plot and an intrepid protagonist."

Booklist

"A tight, fast-paced thriller, with a winding, twisty plot and an intrepid protagonist."

New York Times and USA Today bestseller

"Everything you want in a thriller: suspense, intrigue and best of all, a truly captivating protagonist to cheer on. Throw in a white-knuckled race from Chicago to Colorado over backroads that this author obviously and respectfully knows well. This one's a slam-dunk that'll keep you reading, non-stop until the very last sentence."

Kirkus Reviews

2018-10-15

A prion disease originating at an Alaskan pig farm is causing people to lose their memories. One young woman holds the key to a cure.

It's a cold winter's day in rural Iowa when 22-year-old Wynter Roth is unceremoniously booted from the compound of apocalyptic cult New Earth as its founder, Magnus Theisen, looks on. Wynter is devastated, but luckily, Julie, her mother's former best friend, offers her a home beyond New Earth's formidable gates. Wynter was a small child when her mother brought her and her sister, Jaclyn, to New Earth, and she was never a thoroughly willing convert. Nonetheless, her faith in God has been inevitably shaped by the ravings of Magnus Theisen, a millionaire and self-styled prophet who has convinced his followers that the end is coming with all the fire and fury of a vengeful God behind it. Soon after Wynter leaves New Earth, people start falling ill with an affliction that causes a form of dementia, and society begins a slow, rolling collapse, helped along by cyberattacks by vaguely defined foreign threats. After Julie's husband, Ken, conveniently an epidemiologist, is called away to help, Jaclyn—who is married to Magnus—shows up with tissue samples and implores Wynter to get them to a veterinarian in Colorado and get her 5-year-old daughter, Truly, out of New Earth. So, Wynter sets off across a chaotic, increasingly deadly landscape where she eventually meets up with Chase Miller, a handsome ex-Marine who offers help. The book's strongest sequences, interspersed throughout, take place during Wynter's formative years at New Earth. Wynter narrates, giving us an eye-opening look at how cults groom their faithful masses, and her integration back into the outside world feels realistic. Christian novelist Lee (Firstborn, 2017, etc.) offers a pragmatic, down-to-earth approach to faith, and Magnus is creepy enough to rival anything that prion disease can throw at poor Wynter. However, Lee misses an opportunity to put a unique spin on stale societal-collapse tropes, and Wynter's travails will barely make seasoned genre readers flinch.

Lee's smoothly competent writing can't save this bland, by-the-numbers race to save the world.

Product Details

BN ID: 2940171149666
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication date: 01/29/2019
Series: Line Between Series , #1
Edition description: Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

The Line Between

IOWA, SEPTEMBER

Conventional wisdom dictates that there’s an insurmountable divide—an entire dimension of eternity and space—between Heaven and Hell. Lucifer managed to make the trip in nine days, at least according to Paradise Lost. That equates to a distance of about 25,920 miles, assuming standard rules of velocity.

But I can tell you it’s closer to a foot and a half. The distance of a step.

Give or take an inch.

Magnus stands near the gatehouse, shirtsleeves rolled up, collar unbuttoned beneath his brown vest. He nods to the Guardian in the booth and the industrial gate begins its mechanical slide. There’s a small door to the side of it just large enough to admit a single person, but I won’t be leaving by the Narrow Gate. My departure must be a spectacle, a warning to those assembled behind me.

I can feel their eyes against my back like hot iron. The glares mottled by anger and fear. Sadness, maybe, but above all gratitude that they are not me.

Two Guardians stand at my sides ready to forcibly walk me out in case I balk or my twenty-two-year-old legs give out beneath me. I glance at the one to my right and swear he looks impatient. Hungry, maybe; it’s just before lunchtime. I’m crossing into eternal damnation, and all he’s thinking about is an egg salad sandwich—and not even a good one. It’s Wednesday, Sabbath by the solar calendar. Rosella is managing the kitchen, and that pious sandwich is full of chickpeas without a single real egg in it.

The gate comes to a stop with an ominous clang. The road be-yond is paved with gravel, a gray part in a sea of native grass strewn with gold and purple flowers in stark contrast to the carefully and beautifully manicured grounds behind me. A meadowlark sings somewhere nearby as a combine rumbles in the distance.

I grip the plastic bag of my sparse belongings: a change of underwear, my baby book stripped of its photos, a stone the color of sea glass. Sweat drips down the inside of my blouse as I stare out at that feral scape. At that barren drive through untouched prairie that leads to the road half a mile away.

A car idles at the corner, waiting for me.

Don’t look. Don’t glance back. That’s Pride talking, a voice so faint this last decade I wasn’t aware it was still in there. Still, I turn. Not because I need a parting glance at the compound I called home for the last fifteen years or even Jaclyn, my sister. But because I need to see her.

My niece, Truly.

I scan the nearly five hundred Select assembled across the broad drive until I find her small form near the front, her hand in Jaclyn’s, curls wafting around her head in the breeze.

I’d planned to mouth the words I love you. To tug my right earlobe in our secret sign so she’ll remember me long after she’s told she can never speak my name again. To fight back tears at the sight of hers, to combat her confusion with love.

Instead, my heart stops.

She’s glaring at me, her face pink, growing redder by the instant. I open my mouth—to say what, I don’t know—but before I can, she tears her hand from my sister’s and runs away, disappearing into the assembly.

“Truly!” I gasp, and stagger a step after her. The Guardians grab my arms.

“No. Wait—Truly!” I twist against them, plastic bag swinging against my thigh. I can’t leave her like this. Not like this. It wasn’t supposed to happen this way.

None of it was.

I shift my gaze to my sister, where she stands beside the six Elders. Her cheeks are hollow, features chiseled far beyond her twenty-seven years.

“What did you say to her?” I shout as I’m jerked back around and hauled toward Magnus, who stands before the open gate, this side of that invisible line.

“Wynter Roth,” Magnus says, loudly enough for those behind us to hear. Which means he’s basically shouting right at me. Gone, the brown-and-gray scruff that was on his chin yesterday. I can smell his aftershave from here.

“Please,” I whisper in the space between us, trying to snag his gaze. But he stares past me as though I were a stranger.

“Because of your deliberate, prolonged disobedience . . .” His words carry to those behind me even as the breeze whisks mine away.

“Just let me say good-bye!”

“. . . including the sins of idolatry, thievery, and the willful desire to harm the eternal future of those most vulnerable among us . . . because you will not hear the pleas of the brethren and refuse repentance, you are hereby delivered to Satan for the destruction of your flesh.”

I hear the words as though from a distance. I’ve seen and heard them spoken before—I just never thought they’d be aimed at me. So this is it. There will be no good-byes. And I realize I hate him.

Magnus lifts up his hands. “And so we renounce your fellowship and cast you out of our holy number even as we pray for the restoration of your salvation, which you forfeit this day. Now, as it is bound on Earth, so let it be bound in Heaven.” He lowers his arms as the assembly echoes his words and says, more quietly as he meets my eyes at last, “You have broken our hearts, Wynter.”

He moves away before I can respond and the Guardians walk me to the line as I glance back one last time.

But Truly is gone.

I face the gravel drive before me.

One step. That’s all it takes to span the distance of eternity.

Welcome to Hell.

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