Scott Free: A Thriller by the Author of EVEN STEVEN and NATHAN’S RUN

Scott Free: A Thriller by the Author of EVEN STEVEN and NATHAN'S RUN





One of America's most acclaimed suspense writers now serves up a bracingly original nail-biter that takes us deep into the rugged terrain of the Utah mountains.

Sherry Carrigan O'Toole can't seem to apply the prescriptions she offers in her bestselling self-help books to her own life. Six years after her marriage to Brandon disintegrated and he won custody of their son, Scott, there's no room in their lives for her. Hoping to win back the teenager's heart, Sherry arranges a week's skiing at the plush SkyTop Village resort.

But Scott has other plans. Determined to evade his mother's clutches, he jumps at the chance to join a foolhardy adventure: flying a Cessna through a nighttime storm to Salt Lake City for a Metallica concert. After the plane crashes, Scott is lost and alone in the frozen wilderness, miles from anywhere anyone would search for him.

As Brandon and Sherry revisit the old battles that tore them apart, they have to fight a bureaucracy that wants to abandon the search even as their son struggles to survive impossible odds.

Barely alive, Scott finally finds a cabin for shelter. He thinks his troubles are over. When he discovers the truth about the man who lives there, however, it's clear that his terror has hardly begun.

With his latest page-turner, John Gilstrap cements his position among today's most ingenious thriller writers.When a plane carrying Scott O'Toole to a rock concert in Salt Lake City crashes in the Utah mountains, the resourceful teenager manages to make it to what looks like safety--a cabin owned by a mysterious, heavily armed man who may be the protected government witness he says he is--or a killer whose presence in the area has more to do with a planned political assassination. Meanwhile, Scott's divorced parents are dealing with his predicament very differently. Sherry O'Toole, a bestselling self-help author, seems more concerned about her public image and refighting her acrimonious divorce than using her celebrity to focus attention on her missing son, while Brandon O'Toole, who won custody of the boy, is desperately trying to convince the authorities that Scott, who is trained in survival, should not be given up for dead. This is a thrilling, chilling mystery from a writer whose abilities to create believable, authentic teenage characters have marked his other novels, notably Nathan's Run. But Sherry is little more than a cartoon figure, whose ambivalence in the face of her son's catastrophe is unbelievable, and Brandon, while a much more sympathetic figure, is hardly more real. Despite these flaws, Scott Free is a compelling read, with excellent pacing and a narrative that drives to a thunderous conclusion. --Jane Adams









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