Lockdown: A Novel of Suspense - Softcover

King, Laurie R.

 
9780804177955: Lockdown: A Novel of Suspense
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0804177953 ISBN 13: 9780804177955
Verlag: Random House Publishing Group, 2018

Inhaltsangabe

A community comes together when threatened by someone with a thirst for revenge in this stunningly intricate, tautly plotted novel of rich psychological suspense from the New York Times bestselling author of the Mary Russell mysteries.

Career Day at Guadalupe Middle School: A day given to innocent hopes and youthful dreams. A day no one in attendance will ever forget.

A year ago, Principal Linda McDonald arrived at Guadalupe determined to overturn the school’s reputation for truancy, gang violence, and neglect. One of her initiatives is Career Day—bringing together children, teachers, and community presenters in a celebration of the future. But there are some in attendance who reject McDonald’s bright vision.

A principal with a secret. A husband with a murky past. A cop with too many questions. A kid under pressure to prove himself. A girl struggling to escape a mother’s history. A young basketball player with an affection for guns.

Even the school janitor has a story he dare not reveal.

But no one at the gathering anticipates the shocking turn of events that will transform a day of possibilities into an explosive confrontation.

Tense, poignant, and brilliantly paced, Laurie R. King’s novel charts compelling characters on a collision course—a chain of interactions that locks together hidden lives, troubling secrets, and the bravest impulses of the human heart. 

Praise for Lockdown

“A fine thriller, as timely as it is gripping.”—Booklist (starred review)
 
“King delivers, providing both a drama-filled anatomy of the school and a chance for its community to show its best by the way it confronts the worst Career Day imaginable.”—Kirkus Reviews
 
“Lockdown [has] the tension of a ticking time bomb.”—San Jose Mercury News
 
“Dramatic . . . harrowing.”—Santa Cruz Sentinel
 
“King is a strong, purposeful writer with a keen eye for detail. . . . [This book earns] its page-turner status.”—The Stranger
 
“Keeps readers guessing to the very end.”—Charleston Currents

Die Inhaltsangabe kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Laurie R. King is the New York Times bestselling author of fourteen Mary Russell mysteries, five contemporary novels featuring Kate Martinelli, the Stuyvesant & Grey novels Touchstone and The Bones of Paris, and the acclaimed A Darker Place, Folly, Califia’s Daughters (written under the pen name Leigh Richards), and Keeping Watch. She lives in Northern California.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Chapter 1

12:13 a.m.

Brendan

Brendan dropped to one knee in the dim alley, watching for motion at the far end. He’d already been hit once. Plus that, he was low on ammo—­but his pulse was racing so fast his finger wanted to jerk down on the trigger, spraying the filthy bricks and Dumpsters with his last bullets. (And that would be the end of everything.)

The Enemy darted from left to right, bringing a compulsive twitch that wasted a couple of rounds, but Brendan forced his finger to pull back. The guy’d have to come out to fire, and when he did, crimson splatter would fill the—­

“Brendan? Brendan James Atcheson, if you’re still playing that goddamn game . . .”

The alley vanished into black screen as Brendan leapt in the direction of bed. But as he moved, his foot brushed the basketball sitting on the floor. He nearly went back for it—­the thing was rolling directly toward the door—­but he couldn’t risk it, just dove under the covers and jerked them to his ear like a child. As if blankets could be armor against the approaching threat.

He forced his face to go slack, struggled to control his breathing. When the light from the doorway spilled against his eyelids, his heart beat faster than when he’d been facing death in the alleyway. He waited: for Sir to step inside, lay his hand on the warm game console, spot the basketball in motion. For Sir to . . . ​

12:14 a.m.

Thomas

Tom closed his son’s door quietly. He knew perfectly well Brendan wasn’t asleep. He probably should have gone in and forced a confrontation, in spite of the hour. But if Tom had to deal with the boy’s attitude on top of everything else—­well, even a reasonable man had his limits. And that “goddamn” he’d let slip just now . . . ​

Only the desperate swore.

Yes, a confrontation with Brendan was necessary—­and soon: the boy was getting way too full of himself. Just not tonight.

Tonight he simply needed Brendan to go the hell to sleep, so he could focus on tomorrow. Conquering adversity was what Thomas Atcheson did, the thing that had carved him a place at the top of a cutthroat industry. Give him a locked door, he’d find another way. Show him a dead end, he’d chisel a path through it. Present him with strikes, incompetence, and a Byzantine permit process, and he’d still manage to build a campus that won awards.

His competitors had learned that, to their detriment; his former partner, even his ex-­wife. The current situation was no different, no matter how high the stakes. There was sure to be a loose end in this maddening tangle of emergencies, threats, and frustrations. Absolutely had to be. All he needed was to find the end of that thread, and it would lead him to the solution.

The boy didn’t know how good he had it, being able to sleep.

12:31 a.m.

Linda

Sleep was proving every bit as elusive as Linda had feared. She’d thought about the pills—­but the previous three months had taught her that on a day like tomorrow, chemical grogginess would be worse than mere fatigue. At least there was a mix of lacerations keeping her awake tonight, in place of the usual haunting regrets. It was almost a relief to stare at the dim ceiling and anticipate the things that could go wrong, letting her thoughts toss and turn instead of her body.

Paper cups will be fine, right? Nobody expects proper cups and glasses—­and lunch itself will be off real plates. Wait: did I warn the speakers against wearing gang colors? Like that substitute who’d turned up in a blouse made of red bandanas and—­oh, yes: that made it into the letter, after talking to Mrs. Hopkins about the Taco Alvarez trial.

What about the typo in the flyer—­had she corrected that? Her leg twitched with the impulse to get up and check—­but no. Mrs. Hopkins had caught it, too.

Praise the heavens for school secretaries! And for the teachers (most of them) and the volunteers that Señora Rodriguez (I do wish I could like that woman more) had commandeered to help with Career Day. And the Social Studies department for the grant they’d got, and the old hippie who’d finished restoring the mural just in time—­and not to forget “Tío” (was he actually anyone’s “uncle”?) because, oh, what a difference a good janitor made in a school’s life. (Ridiculous to be suspicious of the man: he lived to keep Guadalupe running smoothl—­)

Dear God, had she been about to use the word smoothly about Guadalupe Middle School? A school bubbling with hormones and suppressed rage, with threats all around it and a huge, suppurating wound at its—­

Linda snatched desperately at the downward spiral of her thoughts before the name Bee Cuomo could surface, and forced her mind back onto minutiae.

That loose button on her blouse! The blessed thing was sure to pop off at the worst possible moment. Like during school assembly, fifty minutes that was already filling her with dread—­and not only because she’d have to give a speech. The gym would be packed to the rafters with seven hundred–­plus adolescents on the brink of boiling over, into impatience, mockery, even the violence that was never far away. A pressure cooker waiting for a perceived insult or a slip of the tongue . . . ​​or a display of their principal’s bra.

Do not forget to wear the blue blouse tomorrow!

Linda would bet that Olivia Mendez never went to work with a loose button. Ever-­competent Sergeant Mendez of the San Felipe Police Department, watching Gordon walk across the distant playing field the other day, that too-­intelligent, endlessly speculative gaze of hers . . . ​

As if she’d said it aloud, Gordon shifted on his pillow. “You’re not sleeping.”

“Oh hon, sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you. I’ll go make myself some tea.”

“Worried about tomorrow?”

“You could say that. I can’t help thinking I’ve set us all up for a . . . ​​a catastrophe.” She didn’t even like to say the word aloud. “There must be something I’m overlooking.”

“Linda, I cannot imagine you’ve overlooked anything.”

Her laugh was forced. “Compulsive, right? When I was small, I’d lie awake and invent horrible scenarios. My parents dying, the neighbor’s dog biting me. I must’ve heard someone say it’s always the unexpected that creeps up on you, and figured if I could imagine a thing . . .” Her voice faded away.

“Dear heart, you have it all under control. You’re prepared to the hilt, with good help, competent volunteers, a responsible team of guests. There’s nothing to worry about. Tomorrow will go fine.”

His calm voice almost made Linda . . . ​​believe. There’s no restlessness in him, is there? You’ve been imagining problems, like you always do. This is Gordon, the most trustworthy man you know. There’s no reason whatsoever to think—­

His arm came out then, to stroke warm fingers up and down her arm. Up, and down. Wordless, and hypnotic. Before long, her nerves ceased their rattling. Paper cups and loose buttons, vanished children and gang rivalries, bulldog police sergeants and too-­efficient janitors and all the rest...

„Über diesen Titel“ kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Verlag
Random House Publishing Group
Erscheinungsdatum
2018
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0804177953
ISBN 13 
9780804177955
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
416
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Buchbär
info@buchbaer.de

Weberstr. 67
Osnabrück
49084
Deutschland

Weitere beliebte Ausgaben desselben Titels

9780804177931: Lockdown: A Novel of Suspense

Vorgestellte Ausgabe

ISBN 10:  0804177937 ISBN 13:  9780804177931
Verlag: Bantam, 2017
Hardcover