Derailed
By James Siegel  

     This thriller is about Charles Schine, an ad exec who works in a New York ad agency. He is married and has a daughter with severe juvenile diabetes. The doctors have already told him and his wife, Deanna, that Anna probably won't live to adulthood. She is now thirteen and, this morning, the numbers on her glucometer are much too high. She makes Charles miss his 8:43 train, so he takes the 9:05. There he meets the gorgeous Lucinda, who is also married.

     Soon they are meeting for lunch, then drinks, then Charles invites her to go to a hotel. She picks the seedy Fairfax, and they meet for sex. As they open the door to leave, they are ambushed by a Hispanic man who breaks Charles' nose and rapes Lucinda several times. He robs them and leaves them alive because both have promised not to go to the police. Indeed, they don't dare tell anyone what happened.

     Charles and Lucinda don't see each other again for a while. Then, the thief begins to blackmail Charles, and he pays up to protect Lucinda. But he has to rob "Anna's fund" for the money. Then he loses his job. How will he cope?

     When I reviewed James Seigel's first book, Epitaph, I felt he was a writer to be watched. I am pleased to say I was right. His second book is a marked improvement over the first and, I hope, a harbinger of a stellar future. Epitaph took you for an interesting spin, but Derailed will take you for a ride you will never forget.