Buried secrets

 by Joseph Finder. A total wow of a read, Finder's second novel starring Nick Heller (after Vanished, 2009), who does intelligence work for private clients, backed up by staff including a digital forensics expert, gets off to a quick start and keeps the throttle wide open for the whole ride. This is the kind of book you have to look up from, every once in a while, just to collect yourself. A teen girl meets a handsome stranger in a bar. He offers her a lift home, and she, who suffers from claustrophobia, ends up buried alive in a coffin 10 feet underground. Her father, billionaire hedge-fund manager Marshall Marcus, reaches out to Heller, but Heller knows Marcus is withholding something vital, even though his daughter's life is at stake. The novel shuttles between the buried-alive girl (whose scenes are excruciating to read); the kidnapper, in flashbacks as well as the present; and Heller's attempts to crack the double mysteries of the daughter's whereabouts and of what Marcus is hiding. Great tension results from the knowledge that Marcus feels he has to keep his secret. About as perfectly plotted and suspenseful as possible, this is a tremendous high-wire act. --Booklist Starred Review (Check Catalog)