Lake Country: A Novel

"Sean Doolittle is a young writer with serious chops," says George Pelecanos, and Laura Lippman calls him "hip, smart, and mordantly funny." Now the acclaimed author of Safer returns with a mesmerizing story of tragedy, revenge, and redemption.

Five years ago, successful architect Wade Benson killed a young woman when he fell asleep at the wheel. His punishment: two days in jail for every year of his probation. But for one friend of the victim's family-an ex-marine named Darryl Potter-this punishment isn't enough. Potter sets out to even the score by kidnapping Benson's twenty-year-old daughter. It's a bad, bad plan, and only Mike Barlowe, Potter's former combat buddy, knows how to stop it. With a beautiful news reporter, the cops, and a bounty hunter on Potter's tail, Barlowe races to head off his troubled friend before innocent people get hurt. The hunters and the hunted plunge north into Minnesota's Lake Country, each with their own ambitions and demons, each headed for a violent collision-and for one horrifying moment of life or death.

"As long as there are writers like Sean Doolittle out there, American crime fiction has got a sterling future ahead of it."-Dennis Lehane

"With Lake Country, Sean Doolittle has out-Fargoed Fargo. Already a master of Midwestern noir, he takes a huge, novelistic leap with his newest work, a complex, quirky, and tremendously satisfying story of revenge and redemption. If you haven't yet read a Doolittle novel, you've missed the cutting edge of crime fiction today. Trust me, this guy is the future."-William Kent Krueger, New York Times bestselling author of Northwest Angle