48 Hours to Kill

October 11, 2021
Convicted armed robber Ethan Lockhart, the hero of this propulsive crime thriller from Bourelle (Heavy Metal), leaves prison on a 48-hour furlough to attend his sister Abby’s funeral. Abby vanished after a shift as a dancer at the Reno, Nev., strip club where Ethan worked as a bouncer before he took on more violent work for Shark, the club’s owner. Though Abby’s body was never found, the huge amount of blood in her empty apartment, Ethan learns, persuaded their mother to have her declared dead. Regret and guilt send Ethan on a harrowing journey through his criminal past to get answers, accompanied by his sister’s best friend, Whitney. Ethan suspects Shark, now a kingpin in a Reno underworld that’s become more dangerous, is complicit in Abby’s death. Shark in turn has cruel plans for Ethan. The tension builds—as does the attraction between Ethan and Whitney—while the clock ticks toward a brutal conclusion with a surprise twist. Crisp action scenes make up for the characters’ weak backstories and holes in the law enforcement side of Abby’s case. Bourelle is a writer to watch. Agent: Amy Tannenbaum, Jane Rotrosen Agency.

November 1, 2021
A convicted felon granted a two-day furlough to attend his sister's funeral decides to spend every minute that he's free solving her murder. The irony is that Abby Lockhart may not even be dead. But nobody's seen her for three weeks, the Reno police haven't been able to find her, and her mother's had her declared deceased to help the wheels of justice grind on. Abby's brother, Ethan, has a few years left until he's eligible for parole on his 20-year sentence for armed robbery when he learns that he's being furloughed for her memorial service without a police escort or even an ankle monitor. But there are conditions, as caseworker Daryl Maxwell reminds him: "No alcohol. No drugs. No possession of weapons. No crimes of any sort....You can't drive." When his former employer, Stanley 'Shark' D'Antonio, the owner of Dark Secrets, the strip club where Abby worked, tells Ethan the secret reason why he took the trouble to arrange his furlough, Ethan instantly clicks into high gear, resolving to do everything he can before he has to return to prison to find out who killed his beloved sister. As Ethan meets Abby's old school friend Whitney Potter, who's followed her footsteps into dancing at Dark Secrets, and chats with the assorted lowlifes Shark has surrounded himself with, Bourelle teases readers with hints about which of those furlough commandments Daryl has prescribed Ethan will break first. Spoiler: He breaks them all, and then some, in this violent, fast-moving tale whose only weak spot is a last act that goes on and on. A great way to kill, if not 48 hours, then at least three or four.

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