Detour

by James Siegel

Overview

How far would you go for someone you love? Would you sacrifice your beliefs? Would you commit a federal crime? Would you risk everything you have? James Siegel's electrifying thriller, Derailed, captivated readers with its emotionally charged twists and turns, racing up national bestseller lists and landing a major motion picture deal. The Washington Post called it "spectacularly inventive," and James Patterson raved, "James Siegel has arrived in high style." Now this acclaimed new master of suspense returns with the explosive story of a mother's love, a father's devotion-and an adopted daughter who turns their lives upside down. They want what every young couple wants: a child of their own. But Paul and Joanna Breidbart have been trying to conceive for five long years-a torturous process of failed medical procedures that nearly tore their marriage apart.

When they finally decide to adopt, American agencies tell them they will have to wait years for their dream to come true. The couple agrees to fly to war-torn Colombia to adopt a baby girl. Paul knows all about risks. As an insurance executive, he routinely calculates the odds of dying in a plane crash or being hit by a bus. Yet all the accident statistics in the world can't prepare him for what is about to happen. Paul and Joanna receive the baby girl of their dreams and their world seems perfect. Then one afternoon they briefly leave their baby daughter alone with their new nanny. When they return, something is disturbingly different about their child...and suddenly everything Paul values is in jeopardy. Again, James Siegel gives us a tale of ordinary men and women thrust into extraordinary circumstances-and a novel that confirms him as one of today's most powerful writers of psychological suspense.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780759513327
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	03/01/2005
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
File size:	455 KB

About the Author

James Siegel grew up in New York and drove a cab while attending community college. One day a passenger suggested he apply for a copywriting job at his advertising agency, BBDO. Despite his award-winning career there, he never abandoned his dream of writing a novel.

Read an Excerpt

Detour

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By James Siegel

Warner Books

Copyright © 2005 James Siegel
All right reserved.
ISBN: 0-446-53185-5

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Prologue

It's an old saying. An adage. A reassuring word to the wise. Or actually, to the scared. It's meant to mollify, to calm, to show one the utter silliness of their thinking.

You say it when someone's frightened to do something.

To travel, for instance.

To ride the rails. Hop a plane. Charter a boat.

To scuba dive. Jet-ski. Rollerblade. Balloon.

They're frightened a terrible something will befall them, that they'll set out to experience an enjoyable afternoon, a day, a vacation, a life, but instead, they'll end up dead.

And what do you say to them?

There's more chance you'll get hit by a bus while crossing the street.

Because how often does that happen, huh?

He kept a secret file in his bottom drawer, buried beneath his myriad charts, pulled out and dusted off for special occasions, as a kind of reminder.

J. Boksi, thirty-eight, about to be engaged. He was walking out of the jewelers, admiring the sparkling oval-cut two-carat ring set in filigreed white gold.

S. Lewes, twenty-two, newly earned MBA in business administration from Bucknell University. She was coming from her first job interview and staring up at the grandest buildings she'd ever seen.

T. Noonan, seventy, doting grandfather. He was taking a walk with his four-year-old grandson and explaining why Batman could not beat Superman in a fair fight, never ever, not on your life.

E. Riskin, sixty.

C. Meismer, seventy-eight.

R. Vaz, thirty-three.

L. Parkins, eleven.

J. Barbagallo, thirty-five.

R. and S. Parks, eighteen-year-old twins.

They'd all been hit by a bus while crossing the street. Every single one of them.

They were all dead.

It reminded him that despite what you think, it can happen.

It can.

It can even happen to you.

The Insurance Actuary calculates the tipping point between risk and probability, thereby hoping to reduce the likelihood of undesirable events. -The Actuary Handbook

Chances are, your chances are, pretty good. -Johnny Mathis

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Detour by James Siegel Copyright © 2005 by James Siegel. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

Siegel's acclaimed debut, 2001's Epitaph, was eclipsed by last year's electrifying thriller Derailed (to be a feature film starring Jennifer Aniston), which reached bestseller lists and marked Siegel as an author with serious chops. It's no surprise that Siegel's third novel offers yet another exhilarating ride, albeit not quite up to the bar set by Derailed. The premise is terrific. Paul and Joanna Breibard, childless Manhattan professionals, travel to Colombia to adopt a baby, but are kidnapped by left-wing militia who make an offer they can't refuse: Paul must swallow 36 condoms stuffed with cocaine and deliver the contraband to a contact in New Jersey within 18 hours; if he fails, Joanna and the baby will die. But in New Jersey, Paul finds a burned-out shell of a house at the contact's address. For help, he contacts Miles Goldstein, the Orthodox Jewish lawyer who arranged the adoption, and when a further delivery attempt ends in gunplay, Paul and Miles turn to Moshe Skolnick, a Russian mobster; later, a DEA agent steps in. Meanwhile, Joanna is held hostage in a country house whose walls are stained with blood. Siegel keeps tension at a steady high throughout, in part by employing short chapters and paragraphs la James Patterson. He makes great use of local color, not only of the easily exotic Colombian settings but also of the no less unusual Brooklyn Jewish and Russian enclaves where Paul finds himself. The novel features some smart twists, although a key one will be spotted by veteran thriller readers from the first page of its setup. Overall, this is first-rate entertainment, not quite as fresh as Derailed, but sure to brush bestseller lists as well as become a favorite airplane read both in hardcover and, eventually, mass market. Agent, Richard Pine. (Mar. 23) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Ready for a Detour with Siegal after being Derailed? The men who kidnapped Paul's infant daughter make a demand: transport lots of cocaine or say good-bye to his family. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

A pair of American innocents ignore their friends' warnings about traveling to Colombia to pick up an adoptive baby. Complications ensue. Paul and Joanna Breidbart have it all except a family of their own. Their salaries-he's an actuary, she works in human relations-have given them a comfortable life in New York but no hope of conceiving a child. Unwilling to endure the long wait they'll have for a baby from Korea or eastern Europe, they jet to Bogota, the mountainous capital of a land torn by drug battles and civil strife. At first everything seems to go smoothly. Their driver, Pablo Loraizo, is an old hand who obviously knows what he's doing; Mar'a Consuelo, the coolly professional director of the Santa Regina Orfanato, duly approves their application for parenthood; and Joelle, the adorable little girl chosen for them, even comes with Galina, her own nurse, who's considerably better at parenting than the novice couple. And then Galina doesn't seem like such a paragon after all. She doesn't want to put Joelle down on her back the way the textbooks say you should, and she takes her out one day without telling Paul and Joanna. Her infractions are the first ominous sign that something's very wrong-something that won't stop till the happy couple have been kidnapped and separated, and Paul's on his way back home carrying a fortune in drugs in a most uncomfortable place. As in Derailed (2003), Siegel shows all the ingenuity of Hitchcock in leading his clueless heroes gently into nightmare, and if once more he's considerably less convincing when they start to fight their way out, exhausted readers will be grateful for every ounce of their spunk and unlikely skill. A thriller that explodes withthe energy of a high-velocity bullet, even if it does lose both power and accuracy toward the end of its amazing trajectory. Agent: Richard Pine/Inkwell Management. Film rights to Paramount, with Lorenzo di Bonaventura to produce

Kirkus Reviews

"The novel is a whopper of a story....This thriller was made for a long plane trip. Just keep your eyes on the page."

From the Publisher

The Breidbarts’ longtime wish for a child is about to come true when they travel to Colombia to adopt a baby girl. The trip quickly goes bad when their new daughter is replaced by another baby, and the Breidbarts are blackmailed into delivering drugs in exchange for their daughter. They’re surprised at their quick transformation into parents willing to lay down their lives for their child, and they wonder if that’s exactly what will be required of them. Holter Graham’s delivery draws listeners into the fears and anxiety of the characters as they wonder if they’ll survive their ordeal. S.K.P. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine

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