Picture of David — Shelley Singer

BARRETT LAKE, A TEACHER GETTING HER DEGREE IN CRIME...

Soon after fourteen-year-old David was kidnapped, his distraught parents received a partially burned photo of his upper torso and terrified face. Barrett Lake didn't say so, but she thought the chances of finding him alive were slim to zero ... especially since tormenting photos and cryptic notes about an "unpaid" debt kept coming like clockwork. The Minskys, Russian immigrants who seemed to have their own mysterious past, were recent arrivals to the magnificent San Francisco Bay area. But their dream of America had quickly been shattered. Barrett Lake's gut instinct made her head for upscale Mann County to look for some dark soul obsessed with revenge. She knew she was getting warm when her own car became the victim of a Molotov cocktail. Despite the setback, she had a slew of suspects ranging from a sculptor, to a hot-tub salesman, a kosher caterer, and some members of a rock group. But did she have the "right stuff" to spot a psychopath, save a kid, and take risks that could get a "real" detective killed...?