So begins a trail of desperation. Enraged and affronted, Sara’s husband, Tony, doesn’t want to admit her desertion to his father an even more belligerent criminal than his son so he sends out a flunky to contract for her return or death. The flunky is desperate to make a reputation for his boss so he finds Mortimer who is desperate to pay off gambling debts and who has just learned he has only a few months to live. Mortimer contacts an old war buddy, Stark, who is just the sort to take care of this “task.”

Sara runs. Once before she fled, then as the victim of a grievous crime desperate to escape the menace of her assailant and now those memories crowd into her brain. She hopes to begin anew but she has few skills. Years earlier she sang in a nightclub now she’s willing to try again.

Abe owns a nightclub and his singer has just taken her own life. Her talents brought a moderate income to his business and now he’s getting desperate. He needs some help. Then Sara comes into his life desperately fleeing a past life and senses Abe’s equal desperation.

But can she keep away from Stark whose unique skills make him a formidable opponent? He, too, lives with desperation - his to rectify a wrong done to a woman he loved who died simply because someone didn’t like Stark. He long ago gave up emotions, preferring to exist surrounded by lovely and expensive objects and disposing of people when the stakes are sufficient. He agrees to help Mortimer as a favor.

So the chain of desperate people forms, sometimes the links overlap. Will the chain break? As the desperation of each character mounts so does the tension for the reader and grows desperate as the chain winds tighter and tighter until….

--Jane Davis