Everything to Lose

Down-on-her-luck 36-year-old Hilary Blum, the heroine of this enjoyable thriller from bestseller Gross (No Way Back), has run out of options. She's lost her job at a small marketing firm, is overwhelmed with debt, and is getting no financial help from her deadbeat ex-husband, the father of her seven-year-old autistic son, Brandon. Everything changes when, on a backcountry road between Westchester County, N.Y., and Greenwich, Conn., she sees the car ahead of her swerve to avoid a deer and roll down a steep embankment. Hilary stops her car and rushes down the slope. In the wreck she finds not only the male driver dead but also a leather satchel containing $500,000 in neat bundles of crisp one-hundred-dollar bills. In a moment of sheer desperation--and against her better judgment--Hilary swipes the cash. After beginning to pay off her debts and getting her life back on track, she discovers that this money didn't belong to the dead man himself, a Metropolitan Transit Authority worker, but rather a murderous third party who will stop at nothing to retrieve what Hilary has taken. Fearing for the safety of herself and Brandon, Hilary races against the clock to uncover the source of the illicit bounty. Readers will cheer her every step of the way to the heart-stopping climax. Agent: Simon Lipskar, Writers House. (Apr.)