A new thriller in the tradition of Pronzini's Snowbound, "a shivery, spine- tingling it-could-happen suspense story... a real rouser." -Publishers Weekly

The rich and powerful Jackman family had always had an obsession with successful gamesmanship-whether in the parlor, the bedroom, or in national politics. When Senator David Jackman plans an escape from Washington pressures through a long, idyllic weekend with his lover on the family's lavish island estate, he has no reason to suspect that he will leave buried there forever the man he had become.

No sooner do Jackman and Tracy arrive than the evidence begins to mount that they are not alone on the island. The threat quickly becomes dramatically real and the couple are soon running for their lives. Jackman knows the island well from his boyhood summers there and instinctively resorts to superb gamesmanship in eluding the pursuers-until Tracy is captured in a scene guaranteed to send chills up the reader's spine.

It is a deadly and terrifying "game" that then begins in earnest, full of subtle clues that are as tantalizing and challenging as they are threatening.

Trapped, exhausted, apparently doomed-truly defeated for the first time in his life-Jackman undergoes a catharsis and a revelation which change both his personality and his fate. He will play one final game, and with grim confidence he brilliantly plans and executes a turnabout on his tormentors which leads to a truly thrilling and action-packed triumph.

"Pronzini makes people and events so real that you're living those explosive days of terror."-Robert Ludlum

"Pronzini is a pro."-The New York Times