Book summary

Edgar Award-winning author Jeffery Deaver spins a tale rivaled only by "In Cold Blood" and "The Silence of the Lambs." A school bus carrying eight deaf schoolgirls and their teachers stops abruptly where three prison escapees wait. The girls are led to an abandoned slaughterhouse. There, Lou Handy, the slimy ringleader, begins his private war against the weathered FBI negotiator Arthur Potter, who sets up his command post nearby. When Handy threatens to murder one girl an hour until they cut him a deal, the negotiator's fears are thrown into sharp relief.