At the start of this pulse-pounding thriller from bestseller Brown (Tough Customer), Honor Gillette is baking cupcakes in the kitchen of her Tambour, La., home when her four-year-old daughter, Emily, tells her a bloodied man is outside in the yard. Lee Coburn is on the run, the object of a manhunt for the cold-blooded murder of seven people, including one of Tambour's most prominent citizens. Promising not to harm Emily, Lee takes Honor hostage, but only because she may have the key to solving an even bigger puzzle: the identity of the Bookkeeper, a criminal mastermind with power over local law enforcement and government. Honor's policeman husband, Eddie, who died in an accident two years earlier, may have had information about the mysterious and malicious Bookkeeper. When it becomes apparent that the mass murders and Eddie's death might be connected, trying to prove the link could cost Lee and Honor their lives. A relentless pace and clever plot twists keep the pages turning. (Sept.)