A married couple launch a deadly plan to find their missing child. A half-dead man washes up on a Los Angeles beach. A rookie cop is fired on her first day.

Ryan and Elsie Delaney don't accept the official line that their young daughter drowned on Santa Monica beach. Her body has never been found and their pleas for a proper investigation are rejected.

So now the desperate pair are raining hellfire on the police.

Taking three hostages at the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center, they give law enforcement an ultimatum - if Tilly isn't located in the next 24 hours, they will destroy evidence in several major cases.

Detective Charlie Hoskins only just survived five years embedded with the ruthless gang known as the Death Machines. All his work is in that lab. If the police won't look for Tilly, he will. Even if that means accepting help from Lynette Lamb, the rookie officer sacked for blowing his cover - and having him thrown to the sharks.

Finding Tilly is now a matter of life and death - for the Delaneys, for their hostages, for Charlie and Lamb, and for the little girl who one day simply vanished . . .

'That rarest of things - a thriller that completely exceeds the promise of a remarkable premise. This is breakneck stuff, and you'll need to remind yourself to take a breath.' - Lisa Jewell