In a suspense novel of astounding power and depth, Jodi Compton
unleashes a haunting tale of secrets and betrayal...and of one
woman's search for her missing husband that spirals into a dark
journey strewn with bitter truths and damged lives. Here debut
novelist Compton introduces an extraordinary character: Detective
Sarah Pribek, a woman of strength, complexity, and instinct, a
woman caught in an unimaginable nightmare...

THE 37th HOUR

On a chilly Minnesota morning, Sarah comes home to the house she
shares with her husband and fellow cop, Michael Shiloh. Shiloh was
supposed to be in Virginia, starting his training with the FBI. A
seasoned missing-persons investigator, Sarah is used to anxious
calls from wives and parents. She's used to the innocent
explanations that resolve so many of her cases. But from the moment
she learns that he never arrived at Quantico, she feels a terrible
foreboding. Now, beneath the bed in which they make love, Sarah
finds Shiloh's neatly packed bag. And in that instant the cop in
her knows: Her husband has disappeared.

Suddenly Sarah finds herself at the beginning of the kind of
investigation she has made so often. The kind that she and her
ex-partner, Genevieve, solved routinely -- until a brutal crime
stole Genevieve's daughter and ended her career. The kind that
pries open family secrets and hidden lives. For Sarah this
investigation will mean going back to the beginning, to Shiloh's
religion-steeped childhood in Utah, the rift that separated him
from his family -- and the one horrifying case that struck them
both too close to home. As Sarah turns over more and more unknown
ground in her husband's past, she sees her lover and friend change
into a stranger before her eyes. And as she moves further down a
trail of shocking surprises and bitter revelations, Sarah is about
to discover that her worst fear -- that Shiloh is dead -- may be
less painful than what she will learn next...

In a novel of runaway tension, Jodi Compton masterfully weaves
together the quiet details of everyday life with the moments that
can shatter them forever. At once a beguiling mystery and a
powerful rumination on family, friendship, and loss, THE 37th
HOUR is a thriller that will catch you off guard at every turn
-- instantly compelling and utterly impossible to put down.

© Copyright 2005 by Dell, a division of Random House,
Inc.