To keep the light of his life, he’ll have to do some dark things.

After Matt Caine loses his wife in a car accident, all he has left is his daughter, Anna. But just as the little girl—who survived the accident—finally starts thriving, Matt’s former in-laws threaten to take her away via a bitter custody battle. Desperate to keep Anna and in debt to some dangerous local thugs, Matt has no good options. But he does have Jay, one very bad friend.

Just out of jail and plagued by drug addiction, Jay tempts Matt with a foolproof kidnapping scheme. But what sounds like the perfect solution to all his problems eventually leads Matt through a nightmarish maze of betrayals and reversals, pushing him to his breaking point—and beyond. Now, with his entire life hanging in the balance, Matt makes a pledge of brutal payback.

**

### Amazon.com Review

"John Rector is quickly becoming a master of suspense and drama...Just when you think the story can't get any more complicated, it does. It has more twists than a pretzel, but is much more satisfying" - *New York Journal of Books*

"*Out of the Black* is a stimulating ride that makes you feel something and keeps you turning the pages. Rector understand economy of language, and that makes this novel feel like a great novella on steroids"- *Out of the Gutter *

"This is a tightly plotted thriller and one that you will read to the last page"- *Bookviews ***

Praise for the *International Thriller Award* Winning, and *Wall Street Journal* Bestselling Author John Rector: **

"John Rector piques our curiosity at every page turn and leaves us hanging at each chapter ending." -*New York Journal of Books*

"Its time to get on board, before Rector stops being "the next big thing" and becomes the phenomenon he deserves to be." -*Los Angeles Review of Books *

"Swift and savage and smart, Rector (writes)...superior pulp in the grand James M. Cain tradition." -Max Allan Collins, author of *Road to Perdition *

"(John Rector is) a novelist who I consider to be one of the very best new writers to enter the scene in a very long time... John Rector is a game changer." -*Spinetingler Magazine*

"A bestselling author who doesn't make us embarrassed to have his books on our shelves." -*The Nerd of Noir*

"Rector brings some really impressive writing and strong characters into a genre that is often teeming with contrived, cringe-worthy dialogue and flat, unoriginal characters." -*Baltimore Reads *

"(Rector's) consistent excellence in storytelling is already proving his calling card."-*Books and Writer's*

"John Rector writes a lean, mean mystery."-*Lincoln Journal Star*

"If Rector came out with a book tomorrow, it would be at the top of my 'to-be-read' list by nightfall! He has refined his craft, opening new possibilities for the future. Wherever he goes, I'll follow." -*Grift Magazine*

#### **Author Marcus Sakey Reviews *Out of the Black* by John Rector**

Here’s something I’ve learned: it’s not the thrills that make a thriller great.

Don’t get me wrong, they’re important. As readers, we want to be held in a state of sustained adrenaline, to have the tension ratcheted tighter and tighter and then, impossibly, tighter still. We want to face impossible odds while playing for the highest imaginable stakes.

All of which John Rector does, masterfully. But that’s not what makes *Out of the Black* a great thriller.

It’s a hundred other things...Read the rest of this review at www.kindlepost.com.

### From Library Journal

Matt Caine is an unemployed widower who makes some bad decisions in this dark caper novel from Rector (*Already Gone*; *The Grove*), a rising star in the thriller genre. A sketchy friend convinces Matt there’s easy money (to pay off the loan sharks he borrowed from for his daughter’s medical bills) in kidnapping a rich man’s wife. Unfortunately, the rich man is a dangerous mobster, and things rapidly spin out of control. Soon Matt finds himself depending on friends from a past he thought he’d left behind and considering acts of violence more suited to the marine he once was than the single father he is now. Oh, and his late wife’s parents think they’ll do a better job of raising his daughter than he will so they are contemplating suing for custody. Verdict: Written in a spare, laconic style reminiscent of Elmore Leonard or Robert B. Parker, this fast-moving, bleak thriller driven by the economic realities of modern America will appeal to fans of suspense fiction from the grittier side of the mean streets.