Every Trace

by Gregg Main

Overview

Ellen has murder on her mind: an untraceable act of retribution for a horror that shattered her family and her childhood. After years of quietly searching, the time for action has arrived. Leaving her unwitting husband, Pete, she vanishes without a trace, taking to the road in pursuit of a man called Walker—a killer who can lead her to the evil prey she seeks.

With the slimmest of clues, a confused and desperate Pete begins to trace Ellen's path. As he pieces together the truth behind his wife's disappearance, he realizes that his ignorance of Ellen's secrets has not only jeopardized their marriage, but may also cost the woman he loves her life. Certain of nothing but the need to find her, Pete crisscrosses the country in a harrowing race against the clock that ends in a brutal, fiery confrontation on a desert mountain top—a stunnning shocker that will leave you guessing until the very end.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062039378
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	12/15/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	400
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Greg Main is a graduate of California State University and the University of Iowa Writers Workshop. He has worked as a teacher, a technical editor, a bookkeeper, and a screenwriter. His screenplays have been sold to Paramount, Disney, and Twentieth Century Fox. Every Trace is his first novel.

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

Pete Donelly stared at the telephone in front of him before picking it up and dialing his sister-in-law's number. It was mid-October; outside the window the Dallas sky was a hard, shiny blue. Pete watched as a strong wind shook the sweet gum tree in their side yard, tearing orange leaves from it and blowing them out of sight. Yesterday, when Ellen had left, there had been no wind at all.

Ellen's sister answered the phone.

"Hi, Susan, it's Pete."

"Pete. Hi. How are you?"

"So-so. May I speak to her, please?"

Susan laughed lightly. She had an infectious laugh that usually made other people smile. But Pete wasn't smiling.

"Speak to who?" she asked.

"Come on, Susan. I know she's there. She called me from your house last night."

"Hold it. Slow down a second. What are you talking about?"

"Ellen. I need to talk to her."

Susan hesitated. "Ellen hasn't been here, Pete. I haven't seen her at all."

"But she said she was going to your house for a few days. She called last night and told me she was there."

"Is this some kind of joke?"

"Of course not."

"She hasn't been here."

Pete's stomach knotted into a ball as his mind raced back to the previous morning when he had carried Ellen's luggage out to her car. She hadn't wanted him to drive her to the airport.

Ellen had worn jeans and a deep purple sweater. It was a color she favored. Her wide blue eyes were set in a narrow face with delicate features. Her hair, which had been blonde when she was younger, was now a sandy brown. Pete put her bags in the trunk, and Ellen walked to the door of her car.

Pete said, "Ihate you leaving like this. We need to talk."

"We've talked for days," Ellen said. "I need a break."

"All right. I understand." He leaned forward to kiss her, but Ellen turned her head, forcing him to brush at her cheek.

She got in her car without another word. Pete watched her back out of the driveway, head down the street and turn the corner. At seven that night she called to let him know she had arrived safely at Susan's house.

But she had lied.

Susan broke the silence. "What's going on here, Pete? Ellen called me last night, too. I thought she was home."

"I don't know what's going on. This is crazy."

Susan was silent for ten seconds. "Did you guys have a fight?"

"Yeah."

"Bad?"

"Pretty bad. Ellen didn't tell you?"

"No. What happened?"

Pete was silent. He was aware of the sound of his own breathing through the phone. It sounded as though he were gasping for breath. He didn't want to tell Susan the whole story. Pete liked Susan; he knew what she was going to think of him.

"You going to tell me or do I have to guess?"

"I was seeing someone," he said. "It's over now, but Ellen's pretty upset. I figured you knew." It surprised the hell out of Pete that Ellen hadn't told Susan. They were very close. "She said she wanted to get away for a while, and that she was going to your house." Pete paused. "I guess she's left me."

"Did she tell you that?"

"No. She said we could talk when she got back."

"Then I don't think she's left you. At least not permanently."

"If she calls you," said Pete, "find out where she's staying. And please tell her to call me."

Pete remained home most of the day, waiting for the telephone to ring. They lived in a two-bedroom home made beautiful by Ellen's love of gardening. She kept flowers blooming nearly year-round in the large gardens surrounding the house.

Part of the afternoon Pete sat outside on the back deck staring at Ellen's flower beds. He noticed that the lilies and daisies, along with a few others he didn't know by name, looked dry. Pete wondered if he should water them. There hadn't been any rain for almost a week, but Ellen had said nothing to him about watering. That indicated she hadn't planned on being gone for long.

Late in the day Pete got on Central Expressway and drove downtown. He'd called Taylor Reed's office before leaving and spoken with Barbara, Taylor's secretary. She told Pete that Taylor would certainly make time to see him if he came by.

Taylor's company, Arroyo Capital Management, had its offices on the twentieth floor of the Commerce Building. Pete entered the lobby of Arroyo and waited five minutes before Barbara appeared to usher him back.

Taylor's large corner office was decorated in English antique furniture, which he had been collecting most of his life. Taylor was one of Ellen's oldest family friends, having been close to both of Ellen's parents. He had known Ellen her entire life, and after her father died, Taylor had become a surrogate father figure to her.

Taylor stood and came around his desk when Pete entered. He was well over six feet tall, with thick silver hair. As always, he was impeccably dressed in an expensive suit. Nine years earlier, when Pete had first met him, Taylor had been a robust, energetic man, but the last few years had taken a toll. He'd had health problems, including triple bypass surgery, and had become very thin, even frail.

"Hello, Pete," he said. "Barbara told me you were going to stop by." Taylor put out his hand and Pete shook it. "Let's sit over here." Taylor indicated the sofa and chairs arranged around a dark, weathered coffee table. "Can I get you some coffee or a soda?"

Every Trace. Copyright © by Gregg Main. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

What People are Saying About This

T. Jefferson Parker

Gregg Main's first novel, Every Trace is a smart, canny and engaging debut. The tone is spare and the story is intriguing. In this tale of a seemingly average marriage torn asunder by a murder of decades past, Main makes us pull for people who are only just begiing to realize how much they love and need each other. His portrait of the old criminal, Franklin Walker, is knowing and heartfelt. Every trace takes us into a world of doomed hopes and unrealized blessings. It's a worthy book from a very promising new writer.

Lee Child

Gregg Main's Every Trace is a mixture -- parts of it are brilliant, and the rest is even better. An emotional white-knuckle ride that ends up in a place you won't predict.

Editorial Reviews

Secrets are festering at the heart of Pete and Ellen Donelly's marriage. Guilt-ridden, Pete's just disclosed his: He's had an affair, and he feels awful about it. Now it's Ellen's turn to come clean, and her secret is so unbelievable and so shocking, it's going to jar Pete to the bone and bring him face-to-face with the darkest side of humanity he has ever seen.

bn.com

An otherwise predictable story of revenge gone awry is redeemed, in L.A. screenwriter Main's debut thriller, through his creation of the memorable character of a 63-year-old paroled murderer. Thirty years before the novel's beginning, Franklin Walker and another man killed Ellen Donelly's father during a robbery, a crime that the five-year-old girl witnessed. Now, bent on vengeance, Ellen leaves her husband, Pete, and their Dallas home one day without explanation. She flies to L.A., where Walker has been living since his parole, confronts him with a gun and demands the identity of the man who did the actual shooting and was never caught. Walker, a crusty old con who reads self-help books and keeps a tight rein on his feelings, manages to turn the tables and take Ellen prisoner. Meanwhile, back in Dallas, Pete does some digging in Ellen's computer and discovers that she and her recently deceased mother had been planning their revenge for many years. Helped by a family friend and an L.A. private eye who lives in a retirement home, Pete picks up Ellen's trail just as she and Walker move on toward New Mexico and a rendezvous with the killer. Unfortunately, neither Pete nor Ellen are more than one-dimensional pawns on Main's chessboard; in particular, Ellen's decision not to confide in Pete is built on a flimsy reason. Yet readers will take pleasure in observing Walker's metamorphosis from wary survivor to positive action-taker, and Main's ability to craft swift, highly charged scenes keeps the narrative moving briskly. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

When Ellen Donnelly was three years old, her father was murdered after walking in on an apparent robbery, an experience from which Ellen has never recovered. While the accomplice spends 30 years in jail, the identity of the gunman remains a mystery. Every Trace, Main's first novel, begins when Ellen decides to confront the accomplice, now in his 60s and working at an adult video warehouse. Alone, Ellen plans to learn the identity of the gunman and, as an act of revenge, murder both men. When Ellen's plan goes terribly awry, it is up to her husband, Pete, to untangle Ellen's carefully concealed plan. This abridgment flows well, except for the few spots where Pete appears to be hit with sudden insight. The action takes place in Dallas, Los Angeles, and rural New Mexico, but Fee Waybill's reading barely hints at regional accents. In fact, the characters' voices sound essentially the same, which leads to confusion in scenes that rely heavily on dialog. Although somewhat predictable, the mystery takes an unexpected turn or two. Not an essential purchase, but recommended for large mystery collections.--Adrienne Furness, Genesee Community Coll., Batavia, NY Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

Library Journal

A debut novelist pushes most of the right buttons in this clever suspenser about revenge gone awry.

At the age of four, Ellen Donelly sees her father murdered. Nightmares follow in a blighted childhood. When she's older, she begins to experience the steadily rising need for vengeance. In this she's joined by a powerful ally, her mother. Two killers, the police had said, but only Franklin Walker was ever arrested, tried, or convicted. Now, after 30 years, he's paroled - and disappears almost at once from view. With him at large, the women rededicate themselves and vow to track him down. Their intent - and they never shy from brutality - is to kill him, but not before they force him to reveal the identity of his accomplice. Unexpectedly, Ellen's mother dies. Ellen's resolve, however, remains intact. As unobtrusively as possible, she slips out of Dallas for L.A., where, according to the p.i. she's hired, Walker has gone to ground. All of this, incidentally (the years of inner turmoil, the renewed commitment), has been kept from her husband: at first, she simply wanted love and romance to be cocooned and thus protected; later, there were reasons not to trust him. So Pete knows only that she's vanished. Naturally, he tries to find her. And, of course, Ellen tries to find Walker (who turns out to be something other than the bloodthirsty beast of her terrible dreams). Soon enough, the missing murderer, understanding himself to be suddenly endangered, is thrust into pursuit of them all. The cast converges violently in a remote cabin near Santa Fe. There's shooting, death, and in the smoke-clearing aftermath, a neat resolution.

Formula stuff by and large, but with some nicely engineered surprises to tingle the spine.

Kirkus Reviews