Grace Descansowas goingto be a pediatric heart surgeon---she was a brilliant up-and-comer with a bright future in a heartbreaking, innovative field.Then she took two months off to work in a clinic in Guatemala, and something happened there that nearly destroyed her.She won’t talk about why, but she quit medicine andnearly killed herself with drink. Finally, inch by inch,shepulled it all together for her new baby girl.Now, five years later, though she’s sworn off practicing as a doctor, Grace is using her science background as a crime scene tech in San Diego and going to AA meetings, scraping by and living to be a mom to five-year-old Katie.

Everything falls apart again whenin the middle ofprocessing a crime scene Grace shoots a madman after he’s killed two of her colleagues and after he’s called her by name, in a bizarre kind of warning, about someone he called “the Spikeman.” A day later, her daughter is kidnapped right out from under her, and instead of a ransom note, the kidnapper sends her ona harrowing twenty-four-hour scavenger hunt, laying out clues and giving out deadlines, leading her carefully, terrifyingly closer to Katie---and to him.

The Timer Game is a pulse-pounding race-against-time novel of suspense from atalented writer.

From the Inside Flap

Grace Descansowas goingto be a pediatric heart surgeon---she was a brilliant up-and-comer with a bright future in a heartbreaking, innovative field.Then she took two months off to work in a clinic in Guatemala, and something happened there that nearly destroyed her.She won’t talk about why, but she quit medicine andnearly killed herself with drink. Finally, inch by inch,shepulled it all together for her new baby girl.Now, five years later, though she’s sworn off practicing as a doctor, Grace is using her science background as a crime scene tech in San Diego and going to AA meetings, scraping by and living to be a mom to five-year-old Katie.

Everything falls apart again whenin the middle ofprocessing a crime scene Grace shoots a madman after he’s killed two of her colleagues and after he’s called her by name, in a bizarre kind of warning, about someone he called “the Spikeman.” A day later, her daughter is kidnapped right out from under her, and instead of a ransom note, the kidnapper sends her ona harrowing twenty-four-hour scavenger hunt, laying out clues and giving out deadlines, leading her carefully, terrifyingly closer to Katie---and to him.

The Timer Game is a pulse-pounding race-against-time novel of suspense from atalented writer.