A parent's worst nightmare is realized in Case's expertly written new thriller. During a summer-long, last-ditch attempt to reconnect with his family since separating from his wife, Washington TV reporter Alexander Callahan loses his identical twin six-year-old sons at a Maryland Renaissance fair. After facing the media avalanche outside his house, Alex and police detectives discover mysterious objects placed inside: a carefully crafted origami rabbit, a bowl of water in the closet, seven winged Liberty dimes in a neat stack. Following a "maelstrom of emotion," Alex is eliminated as a suspect and authorities concede a lack of reliable leads. Scouring the Internet, Alex discovers connections between several cases of abducted twins and his own situation, and with relentless determination he continues his investigation, traveling to Daytona Beach, Fla., to interview wary sources and Las Vegas, Nev., to research the horrific deaths of two abducted young showgirls. The kidnapper, it seems, is a malevolent magician dabbling in voodoo practices. Case's pace reaches a fever pitch as Alex chases more leads to New Orleans, where he teams up with a local albino sleuth and ends up on the doorstep of a witchdoctor who insists on a nightmarish rebirthing ritual before he'll break his silence on the killer. Northern and Southern California provide the final backdrops for a harrowing conclusion that will leave readers breathless. A long, winding narrative that's impossible to put down, this is another work of superior suspense from the author of The Genesis Code. Agent, Elaine Markson. (Oct. 12) FYI: John Case is the pen name of husband-and-wife team Jim and Carolyn Hougan. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Washington, DC, investigative reporter Alex Callahan begins to live every parent's worst nightmare when his young twin sons, Sean and Kevin, go missing from a Renaissance fair. Separated from his wife and suffering from the guilt of losing his sons, he finds things going from bad to worse when he himself becomes a suspect in their disappearance. Then after a month of dead ends, the police move on to other cases, and Alex quits his job to devote himself to the search full time. Using his reporting experience to pursue leads from Las Vegas to New Orleans to the California coast, he ends up in the shadowy worlds of magic and voodoo. Will he survive? Brisk prose, a breathtaking plot, and realistic characters drive this gripping thriller to an unexpected and satisfying end. Another winner from Case (The Eighth Day) that will satisfy fans of Jeffery Deaver and Michael Connolly. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/04.]-Rebecca House Stankowski, Purdue Univ. Calumet Lib., Hammond, IN (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Searching for his kidnapped twin sons, a TV journalist follows an eerie trail. However sensitive the matter in real life, child abduction can loom as a canard when the subject of a thriller. But the pseudonymous Case (The Eighth Day, 2002, etc.) rips into the topic as if it's never been used before. Jaded readers will snap to attention when reporter Alex Callahan returns home to find shiver-inducing clues--a bowl of water, an origami rabbit, a row of Mercury dimes--in the bedroom of his six-year-old twin sons, who've just been kidnapped at a Medieval Fair in northern Virginia. Nearly all of what follows continues to unsettle and intrigue as Callahan, determined to recover his boys, crisscrosses the country, digs through musty files, interviews quirky sources, and surfs the Internet to break the case. He first works with the FBI, but they soon reach a dead-end. Moving ahead alone, Callahan grasps for leads. Might there be links among other cases of abducted twins? Gradually, he connects the grisly murders of two Las Vegas strippers and the abductions of two young boys from Oregon to the kidnappings of his sons. He discovers that, besides twins, the cases also involve a man who practices dark magic: the murder artist. Now Callahan is off to Bayou country, where an albino guide leads him to a voodoo master who promises to help if Callahan will spend a night buried alive. The devoted father complies in a scene claustrophobics will find literally breath-taking. Then, acting on a promising hunch, Callahan speeds to California. Minus one notable flaw in credibility, the rescue scene delivers the reward and excitement that the steady, fascinating build-up has promised. It's all in the telling, and Case does it just right: no clue, moment, or character unturned. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

After a series of fanciful international-conspiracy thrillers, Case (aka Jim Hougan and Carolyn Hougan) changes direction with this first-person, present-tense narrative that effectively plays upon every parent's worst fear. Workaholic journalist and absentee dad Alex Callahan takes his twin sons to the Renaissance Faire only to find they've vanished during the distraction of a joust. During the moment-by-moment ordeal that follows, hope recedes, and Alex's life disintegrates until he falls back on his investigative instincts in a forlorn attempt to find his sons, or at least track down their killer. Alex's dogged search takes him around the country, where he meets colorful characters--or colorless, in the case of Pinky, an albino private eye--and picks up intriguing leads about magic, voodoo, and the significance of twins. The disturbing pattern that emerges points toward a grisly use for his boys that is far beyond his wildest nightmares. Case's hero is appealingly fallible, and his gripping pursuit of a warped monster doesn't let go until the final showdown. This solid kids-in-jeopardy thriller should appeal to a wide range of suspense fans. --David Wright Copyright 2004 Booklist