I have been informed that the television rights to the newly released STAY were sold to a major network before the book even saw the light of published day. I believe this to be true, having stayed up past my bedtime in order to finish devouring the story in one sitting. Victor Gischler, a frequent mystery and thriller award nominee and venerated graphic novel author, has a fine sense of cinematic narrative that runs through the novel like a six-lane, no-speed-limit highway. To put it another way, STAY and Gischler will melt your face off practically from first page to last.

The present-day narrative begins quietly enough. David Sparrow is a stay-at-home dad, and quite a competent one, having most of the chores completed by mid-morning after seeing his wife, Amy, off to work and their two children to elementary school. Amy is a newly minted Assistant District Attorney for New York, and is up to her ears in filings as her office attempts to prosecute a crime lord named Dante Payne for a number of major misdeeds. David chafes just a bit, having been put on leave by his employer, the U.S. Army. David has created the impression that he is involved in some sort of vague and boring but nonetheless important position that consists of seeing that troops are moved where they are supposed to and that housing, food and the like travel in their wake like camp followers. His real job, though, is a bit different from that, and he has been put on temporary but indefinite leave to relax and sort things out until the powers that be decide he is ready to come back.

"Victor Gischler...has a fine sense of cinematic narrative that runs through the novel like a six-lane, no-speed-limit highway. To put it another way, STAY and Gischler will melt your face off practically from first page to last."

However, as we learn quickly enough, David is not going to get that rest. He displays just a hint of his hidden but extremely formidable skill set when his home is burglarized by someone who seems bent on acquiring Amy’s files on Payne in general and a flash drive in particular. That is just the beginning. An assassination attempt engineered at Payne’s behest at the courthouse eliminates one witness and almost gets Amy as well. But Payne isn’t done yet. He has an enormous ego and is determined that anyone who may have seen the contents of that flash drive, or has opposed him in any way, has to die.

A second attempt is made on both David and Amy at their home. David’s swift and deadly performance in defense of his family while under fire demonstrates to Amy that there is much more to her husband than she ever could have imagined. David gets their children to a safe haven, but Amy refuses to budge. While she doesn’t have radical combat training, she is no shrinking violet and won’t leave her husband to fight the battle alone. The result is a series of violent confrontations that pit David and Amy against a seemingly omnipresent foe with unlimited resources. David, though, is not without allies, and fully believes in taking the battle to his enemy, which includes a very dangerous individual from his own secretive history. While David and Amy confront Payne and his minions, the strength of their relationship is tested as the truth behind David’s work for the Army is slowly revealed to her, even as Payne gets ever closer to them.

I doubt that the television series will be as good as the book, which possesses a cinematic narrative all its own. I can think of a half-dozen different comparisons to film and television that I could make if I was pitching this to a producer, but they would all fall short. Please go back to the last sentence of my first paragraph, buy STAY, and set a night aside to read it. You won’t be sorry.