Three women are on the run, wanted for the murder of a high-ranking mobster in this stunning new stand-alone from the world's bestselling thriller writer.

Sarah is his personal chef. Anna is his wife. Serena is his maid.

Mob accountant Anthony Costello has a talent for manipulating both numbers and people. When he's found murdered in his own home, the three people who had most reason to want him dead are missing.

Detective Sean Walsh, whose personal connection to the case makes his desire to solve it even stronger, is short on leads to track down the three missing women. But even if he finds them alive, can they be trusted?

The ultimatum: Show me a reason to live or I kill myself in seven days. When seventeen-year-old Sophia dares life to prove to her she should stay alive, her suffering is at its climax, and her adolescence at its crescendo. She is taking summer courses at a New York City college between her junior and senior years of high school, lured to the program by Shauna, her best friend from California. Blessed with all that society considers attractive and intelligent, Shauna succeeds with guy after guy, course after course. Sophia, meanwhile, fails in every course, at every challenge (especially attracting attractive males), and with everything she touches . . . or so she thinks. Constantly reminded of her own perceived lack of beauty and brains, haunted by pangs of worthlessness, and noticed only by her lanky friend J.P., Sophia begs life for a single decent reason to stick around. Days slip by and she continues her silent countdown until . . . the greatest hope she can find becomes the deepest threat imaginable. Sophia's plight is the plight of every girl or woman who's ever felt substandard, every girl or woman who's ever questioned her own value.