Willing Hostage — Marlys Millhiser

Overwhelmed by an ill-fated love affair, an unsatisfactory career as a model, and her mother's crushing suicide, Leah Harper leaves tragedy behind and heads west in her battered old VW. Caught in a raging storm in sight of the Colorado Rockies, she takes refuge in a seedy motel only to be shocked awake by a blinding flash of lightning and an ominous figure who warns, "Turn on the light and you're dead."