"Meet the FBI's last resort" -- Front cover.

"A 14-year-old boy vanishes on his way home from school. His frantic mother receives a ransom call: pay or else. It's only hours before the deadline, and the police have no leads. Enter Timothy Blake, codename Hangman. Blake is a genius, known for solving impossible cases. He's also a psychopath - the FBI's last resort. But this time Blake might have met his match. The kidnapper is more cunning and ruthless than anyone he's faced before. And Blake has been assigned a new partner, a woman linked to the past he's so desperate to forget. Timothy Blake has a secret, one so dark he will do anything to keep it hidden. And he also has a price. Every time he saves a life, he takes one..." -- Back cover.

This is the first adult novel by popular YA writer Jack Heath. Jack lives in Canberra and is the author of 19 acclaimed fiction titles for middle-grade and YA readers. His books include the real-time series 300, 400 and 500 Minutes of Danger, the choose-your-own-ending Countdown to Danger books (Scholastic), a collaboration with international illusionist Cosentino, and YA novels such as The Cut Out, a multi-award-nominated espionage thriller. His books have sold more than 100,000 copies worldwide and been translated into several languages. First published as a teenager, in the course of his research Jack has trained with firearms, performed street magic, visited morgues and prisons, travelled through 11 countries and read only books by women for a year. jackheath.com.au