Deprivers — Steven-Elliot Altman

In this science fiction thriller by an LA Times bestseller, an assassin with the power to temporarily paralyze others helps with a hostage rescue.

Robert Luxley has a biological problem he does not understand and cannot control: one touch from his bare skin and you're paralyzed for fifteen minutes.

Lonely and isolated, he's turned his “special trick” into a lucrative career as a hired killer. He thinks he's one of a kind -- until one day he's confronted by a young girl named Cassandra, who tells him he's not alone.

She has it too, and the two of them are not the only ones. Carriers can render anyone they touch blind, deaf, or otherwise senseless, in seconds.

Fearing discovery, Luxley follows Cassandra through a dark underground network of “Deprivers” in a desperate hunt for her missing brother Nicholas, taken hostage by a radical group of carriers with a terrifying agenda.

Luxley doesn't know who to trust, or who is safe to touch, but he needs to learn Cassandra's secrets fast.

Praise for Deprivers 

“A book that gets under your skin and on your nerves. The science is impressive; the fiction is haunting. It has a lot on its mind; and it will touch you.” -- Mark Frost, co-creator of Twin Peaks 

“Deprivers is the ultimate paranoia thriller -- emphasis on the word thriller. Fans of everything from The Hot Zone to The X-Files take note, THIS BOOK IS GOING TO BLOW YOU AWAY!” -- Rockne S. O'Bannon, creator of Alien Nation, Farscape, Defiance and Cult

“Deprivers will take you to a terrifying and disturbing tomorrow and make you feel like you live there.” -- David Brin, scientist and science fiction author, winner of the Hugo, Nebula, Campbell and Locus Awards