After twenty years of journalistic drudgery, Max Kavich's career has finally taken off-he's landed a high-profile feature-writing job at the "Star-Herald," New Jersey's largest newspaper. He sifts through the human wreckage of plane crashes, car wrecks, and homicides to find stories of courage and compassion.
But his life begins to mimic the chaos and danger he writes about when he receives an anonymous letter in the mail. He has five days to find and kill Benjamin Bremer, a former high school classmate. If he doesn't, Max's wife, Michelle, and their twin sons will be killed. Bremer, the 1985 class valedictorian and now a hugely successful investment banker, is almost amused when Max shares the threat with him.
Max, however, is far from amused when his family is kidnapped and a policeman is murdered in his backyard. As he is plunged further into a world of darkness, his guile and courage are pitted against the unimaginable terror that awaits him.