Everything To Lose

Everything To Lose by Andrew Gross

A half million dollars is a lot of money. Enough to pay the back taxes on her outrageously expensive home and catch up on the mortgage her ex-husband conveniently handed to her. It would help her loyal parents through a rough patch, and most importantly, continue to send her special needs son to a school where he shows vast improvement. As she caresses the crisp currency and daydreams about financial security, her inner self knows that this split-second decision will alter the course of her life. She knows right from wrong; but desperate times call for desperate measures. So she devises a way to take the money that clearly doesn't belong to her, setting in motion a series of events that will send her life spinning out of control...

While driving down a dark deserted road, Hilary Cantor witnesses a fatal car accident. She doesn't know the dead man whose contorted body is twisted in the mangled wreck but she soon will. He is a man with a secret. He is a man with an exorbitant amount of money that someone desperately wants back along with incriminating evidence from twenty years ago. Hilary unwittingly is now caught in a web of murder and blackmail with a very dangerous and sinister group of individuals who threaten the one person she loves the most; her son. She joins forces with a determined police officer from Staten Island that is reeling from the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Many characters emerge as the story goes back in time. Like in a a game of dominoes, the pieces begin to fall revealing the final lone suspect. And it all begins with the enticement of money.

This is a fast-paced cliff-hanger; easy to read and hard to put down. From the same author who wrote 15 Seconds, the story touches upon relevant current issues of our times like the devastation of a storm that destroyed lives and fractured the human spirit, and a woman so overcome with despair and hopelessness, that she resorts to unthinkable measures in order to save her needy child. Who knows what the future holds and how we will react.  Life is never just black and white; rather it is a myriad of countless shades of gray.

Andrew Gross writes of hope, love and resilience, with suspense all around. Maybe not the ending you desire, but it will certainly keep you engaged for hours as you slip away into the thrill of it all.