Do you really want to play?

Grace Descanso was going to be a pediatric heart surgeon--she was a brilliant up-and-comer with a bright future in a heart-breaking, innovative field. Then she took two months off to work in a clinic in Guatemala, and came back nearly destroyed. She won't talk about why, but she quit medicine altogether. Now, five years later, Grace is a crime scene tech in San Diego, going to AA meetings, scraping by and living to be a mom to five-year old Katie.

Everything falls apart again when Grace is summoned to work what looks like a routine crime scene. Hours later, two colleagues have been brutally murdered and Grace herself is under investigation for shooting the killer. Katie's all she's got. But when Katie is snatched, Grace is thrown into a nightmare world of timed riddles that she must solve in order to find her daughter before it's too late. Welcome to The Timer Game.

Click here to read an excerpt

The Timer Game is going to be published in: Australia, England, Germany, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Scotland, Taiwan, the United States and Wales.

Click here to buy the book.

Reviews

(An) edge-of-the-chair thriller will keep you up until you finish it.
Armchair Interviews
Read the full review here

"Explosive and terrifying, The Timer Game, an original novel with provocative themes and compelling characterizations, moves along at a pulse-pounding pace. Filled with stomach-churning images and guaranteed to satisfy readers hungry for a fast and furious thriller, The Timer Game is a commendable debut novel from a writer who knows how to write an entertaining, intelligent, and really good medical thriller."
-Tim Davis,
www.bookloons.com
Read the full review here

'Susan Arnout Smith's The Timer Game is a gripping thriller with a resourceful heroine. Having mysteriously given up a promising career as a doctor, Grace is now a forensic biologist with the San Diego police and bringing up a five-year old daughter on her own.

After a sinister warning, someone kidnaps the child and taunts Grace with the game she plays with her - finding hidden clues before a timer runs out. If she fails to find each clue, the girl will be killed.

In her frantic race against the clock she discovers that she cannot trust even the people closest to her. The theme is familiar, but there are some original twists and heart-pounding moments before the exciting climax.'
-The Sunday Telegraph

Smith's writing rises above the mediocre level of many thrillers, and her insights, such as "None of us escapes this world undamaged," strike home. And much of the action takes place on Halloween, which adds a ghoulish touch and heightens the tension.

With an intelligent, literate plot and a fully drawn heroine, "The Timer Game" portends great things from Smith. And readers will want her to hurry.
-Jay Strafford,
Richmond Times Dispatch
Read the full review