The ultimate thriller writer's first large-scale, ticking clock standalone thriller. An escaped convict takes hostage a bus of deaf children. He will kill one an hour ...

A trio of desperate convicts has hijacked a bus carrying a group of deaf and mute schoolgirls who are now being held hostage in a disused slaughterhouse. FBI agent Arthur Potter is flown in to negotiate with the men, as are local police, state troopers, politicians and the media. Not everyone has the same agenda. And the killers will kill one innocent child an hour, on the hour, until their demands are met.