The Siege [With Earbuds]

As a lovely weekend approaches on the Yale campus it appears that a number of students-including the sons of both the secretary of the army and newest Supreme Court justice-may have gone missing. Kidnapping? Terrorism? The authorities aren't sure. But the high-profile disappearances draw the attention of the CIA
and the FBI's vaunted Hostage Rescue Team. Attention quickly focuses on the fortress-like tomb of one of Yale's secret societies. Suspended Boulder police detective Sam Purdy soon finds himself in New Haven, where he is quickly snared by an unlikely pair of Feds: FBI agent Christopher Poe and CIA analyst Deirdre Drake.
Sam, Poe, and Dee join together, desperately trying to solve the riddle of what is going on inside the windowless stone tomb on the edge of campus. The clock is pounding in their ears. The unknown enemy is playing by no known rules...is making no demands...is refusing to communicate with the hostage negotiator...is somehow anticipating every FBI move...is completely unconcerned about getting away...
And...is sending students, one by one, out of the building's front door to die.

Publishers Weekly

The Yale campus becomes the site of an increasingly tense siege in this stunning novel from bestseller White (Dead Time). After unidentified attackers quietly take over a building belonging to one of Yale's secret societies, they transform it into a virtual fortress holding an unknown number of students hostage. As officials become aware of what has happened, the response escalates in predictable fashion, but these hostage takers are completely unpredictable. They make no demands, agree to no negotiations and execute or release hostages as they choose. Suspended Boulder, Colo., policeman Sam Purdy eventually teams with maverick FBI agent Christopher Poe and CIA terror expert Deirdre Drake in an effort outside official channels to figure out what's going on. Brilliantly conceived and executed, this intellectually challenging and provocative thriller brings home the lesson that 9/11 might have been a mere prelude to more sophisticated assaults. (Aug.)

Writers often use elements of their own personalities to craft their most-enduring characters, and Stephen White has certain done so in creating fellow-clinical psychologist Dr. Alan Gregory. However, White s electrifying series of crime thrillers aren t likely to be mistaken for autobiographies anytime soon.