Book excerpt: A pleasant evening dinner boat ride on the Seine is destroyed by a shocking murder—and a kidnapping. This time, there is no question who the perpetrator is. Even his master plan is revealed in stunning clarity to anybody paying attention—which Claire Baskerville certainly is. But for Claire—expat American and private investigator living in Paris—and her daughter, that knowledge may come too late. As Claire desperately searches for her daughter in a Paris whose borders have been briefly sealed due to a threatening viral pandemic, she knows the clock is ticking. The lockdown is only meant to give the hospitals a head start and protect the rest of the country. Will she find Catherine before the lockdown lifts? And her daughter is lost forever into the endless, mysterious mist of the Middle East—where Claire has no doubt her only child is bound for.