24 Hours
Authors: Greg Iles
Tags: #Physicians, #Kidnapping, #Psychological Fiction, #Jackson (Miss.), #Psychopaths, #Legal, #Fiction, #Suspense Fiction, #Large Type Books, #Thrillers, #Suspense
Table of Contents
Praise for the thrillers of Greg Iles
24 Hours
“Iles’s latest brilliantly plotted tale walks the razor ’s edge between cinematic excess and bone-chilling suspense. The well-rounded characters are trademark Iles; the plot runs speed-skating smooth... Nasty surprises and perfectly timed terror... A perfect Mississippi setting, a spot-on send-up of FBI assistance and a hair-raising finale complete the package.”
—
Publishers Weekly
(starred review)
“Chilling...The seemingly perfect American family is targeted by a madman who has refined the art of kidnap, and roars into their lives like an avenging angel...A memorable trip down paranoia lane.”
—
The Ottawa Citizen
“A new thriller that is sure to earn even more plaudits.
24 Hours
is a taut tale, terrifying in its intensity, compelling in its pace...The finale is an amazing scenario with the cinematic flavor of a Bruce Willis caper...A good old-fashioned thriller, the likes of which are rare...A winner.”
—
The Chattanooga Times
“An enigmatic crime figure, as brilliant as Hannibal Lecter and as seemingly haphazard as Charles Manson...Iles provides enough twists and turns to keep his hair-raising ending unpredictable and the plot surefire grist for a movie.”
—
The Commercial Appeal
(Memphis)
“Greg Iles displays all the well-honed chops that have made him a bestselling author...He achieves a near-perfect balance of high-tech inventiveness and characterization as the plot rushes to its grand—and violent—finale...Inventive and fast-paced.”
—
The Times-Picayune
(New Orleans)
The Quiet Game
“Suspenseful.”—
Kirkus Reviews
“Grabs you fast and keeps you glued.”
—
Entertainment Weekly
“The climactic unveiling... will spellbind readers.”
—
Boston Herald
“Incredibly engrossing.”—
The Denver Post
“A deliciously complicated plot.”—
Booklist
“Fast-paced action, surprise tactics, and down-and-dirty legal maneuvering played out below the surface calm of the deep South will transfix the reader to the very last page.”—
Library Journal
“This ably crafted, richly atmospheric legal thriller is engrossing.”—
Publishers Weekly
“Thriller-meister Greg Iles... conveys the darker undercurrents of small-town life, and he doesn’t flinch in handling the racial themes.”
—
Chicago Sun-Times
“The pace is frenetic, the fear and paranoia palpable, and the characters heartbreakingly honest.”
—
The Plain Dealer
(Cleveland)
Mortal Fear
“An ingenious suspense thriller... fascinating.”
—
The New York Times Book Review
“A chilling roller-coaster ride.”—
Library Journal
“Greg Iles mixes action and suspense like a master!”
—Stephen Coonts
“Stay-up-all-night suspense...A relentlessly readable thriller.”—
Kirkus Reviews
“Iles displays a flair by pushing topical hot buttons.”
—
Booklist
“Jackhammer pacing... addictive... You know you’re in Iles country.”
—
The Clarion-Ledger
(Jackson, MS)
Black Cross
“On fire with suspense.”—Stephen King
“A thriller of such accomplishment that it vaporizes every cliché... good enough to read twice.”
—
Kirkus Reviews
“A truly fine novel...Totally absorbing and ingenious.”—Nelson DeMille
“A stunning, horrifying, mesmerizing novel that will keep readers transfixed from beginning to end.”
—
Booklist
“The finest thriller since
Eye of the Needle
...Vital, compelling, magnificent.”—
Romantic Times
“Henceforth, any recommended reading list of thrillers will have to include this.”—
Publishers Weekly
Spandau Phoenix
“Masterful action and suspense . . . a sizzling-hot read.”—Stephen Coonts
“A terrific thriller in the great tradition of Jack Higgins...A remarkable, impressive novel.”
—Nelson DeMille
“An incredible web of intrigue and suspense, an avalanche of action from first page to last.”
—Clive Cussler
“An irresistible plot...A scorching read.”
—John Grisham
“Amazing...A masterwork. A thriller whose depth and scope are sweeping.”—
Tampa Tribune-Times
Published by New American Library, a division of
Penguin Putnam Inc., 375 Hudson Street,
New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
Penguin Books Ltd, 27 Wrights Lane,
London W8 5TZ, England
Penguin Books Australia Ltd,
Ringwood, Victoria, Australia
Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue,
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2
Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182-190 Wairau Road,
Auckland 10, New Zealand
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices:
Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England
First Signet Printing, July 2001
Copyright © Greg Iles, 2000
Excerpt from
Dead Sleep
copyright © Greg Iles, 2001
All rights reserved
REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author ’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, business establishments, or locales is entirely coincidental.
BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE AT QUANTITY DISCOUNTS WHEN USED TO PROMOTE PRODUCTS OR SERVICES. FOR INFORMATION PLEASE WRITE TO PREMIUM MARKETING DIVISION, PENGUIN PUTNAM INC., 375 HUDSON STREET, NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10014.
eISBN : 978-1-101-04141-3
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Aaron Priest, the Man.
Phyllis Grann, for paving the way.
David Highfill, for bearing with the writer’s obsessiveness.
Louise Burke, for her hard work and support.
MEDICAL ADVICE: Jerry Iles, M.D., William Daggett, M.D., Noah Archer, M.D., and Michael Bourland, M.D.
AVIATION: Mike Thompson, Justin Cardneaux, and Stephen Guido.
MISCELLANEOUS: Lisa Erbach-Vance, Glen Ballard, Jon Wood at Hodder, Michael MacInnis, Rush and Leslie Mosby, Ken and Beth Perry, Susan Chambliss, Simmons Iles, Robert Royal, Brent Bourland, Caroline Trefler, Carrie, Madeline, and Mark.
READERS: Ed Stackler, Betty Iles, Michael Henry, and Courtney Aldridge.
To those I have omitted through oversight, my sincere apologies. As always, all mistakes are mine.
For Geoff Iles,
who’s been there for me
from the beginning (almost)
He that hath a wife and children Hath given hostages to fortune.
—FRANCIS BACON
ONE
“The kid always makes it. I told you that.”
Margaret McDill had not seen the man in her life until yesterday, but he had dominated every second of her existence since their meeting. He had told her to call him Joe, and he claimed it was his real name, but she assumed it was an alias. He was a dark-haired, pale-skinned man of about fifty, with deep-set eyes and a coarse five-o’clock shadow. Margaret could not look into his eyes for long. They were dark, furious pools that sucked the life out of her, drained her will. And now they carried knowledge about her that she could not bear.
“I don’t believe you,” she said quietly.
Something rippled deep in the dark eyes, like the flick of a fish tail. “Have I lied to you about anything else?”
“No. But you . . . you let me see your face all night. You won’t let me go after that.”
“I told you, the kid always makes it.”
“You’re going to kill me and let my son go.”
“You think I’m going to shoot you in broad daylight in front of a freakin’ McDonald’s?”
“You have a knife in your pocket.”
He looked at her with scorn. “Jesus Christ.”
Margaret looked down at her hands. She didn’t want to look at Joe, and she didn’t want to chance seeing herself in one of the mirrors. The one at home had been bad enough. She looked like someone who had just come out of surgery, still groggy with anesthesia. An unhealthy glaze filmed her eyes, and even heavy makeup had failed to hide the bruise along her jaw. Four of her painstakingly maintained nails had broken during the night, and there was a long scratch on her inner forearm from the initial scuffle. She tried to remember exactly when that had happened but couldn’t. Her sense of time had abandoned her. She was having trouble keeping her thoughts in order. Even the simplest ones seemed to fall out of sequence by themselves.
She tried to regain control by focusing on her immediate environment. They were sitting in her BMW, in the parking lot of a strip mall, about fifty yards from a McDonald’s restaurant. She had often shopped at the mall, at the Barnes & Noble superstore, and also at the pet store, for rare tropical fish. Her husband had recently bought a big-screen television at Circuit City, for patient education at his clinic. He was a cardiovascular surgeon. But all that seemed part of someone else’s life now. As remote as the bright side of the moon to someone marooned on the dark half. And her son, Peter . . . God alone knew where he was. God and the man beside her.
“I don’t care what you do with me,” she said with conviction. “Just let Peter live. Kill me if you have to, just let my son go. He’s only ten years old.”
“If you don’t shut up, I might take you up on that,” Joe said wearily.
He started the BMW’s engine and switched the air conditioner to high, then lit a Camel cigarette. The cold air blasted smoke all over the interior of the car. Margaret’s eyes stung from hours of crying. She turned her head to avoid the smoke, but it was useless.
“Where’s Peter now?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper.
Joe took a drag off the Camel and said nothing.
“I said—”
“Didn’t I tell you to stop talking?”
Margaret glanced at the pistol lying on the console between the seats. It belonged to her husband. Joe had taken it from her yesterday, but not before she had learned how useless a gun was to her. At least while they had Peter. Some primitive part of her brain still urged her to grab it, but she doubted she could reach the pistol before he did. He was probably waiting for her to try just that. Joe was thin but amazingly strong, another thing she’d learned last night. And his hard-lined face held no mercy.