Indelible

A police officer is shot at point-blank range inside the Grant County police station. Chief Jeffrey Tolliver is wounded, and a hostage situation begins with medical examiner Sara Linton at the center of it.

Outside the building, Lena Adams and Frank Wallace have to work out who the shooter is. Lena has only just been reinstated to the force, and Frank is Jeffrey's second in command. Both are friends of the people trapped inside, and Jeffrey is running out of time.

The cause lies in the past. Old wrongs connected to Sara and Jeffrey have caught up with them, and the shooting is the result. The narrative moves between the present siege and earlier events, so the reader learns how the two are linked as the standoff goes on.

This is a crime thriller built on suspense, with a confined, high-pressure setting and a clock that starts with a wounded man. It is the kind of book that keeps its tension tight from the first shot.