The Never List

May 13, 2013
Less could have been more in Zan’s riveting but flawed debut, a psychological thriller. A decade after Sarah Farber helped convict Jack Derber, a University of Oregon psychology professor, for keeping her, along with her best friend Jennifer and two other college-age girls, shackled and naked in the cellar of a remote cabin for almost three years, in between bouts of torture, Sarah leads a hermetic existence as an accountant with a new identity in New York City. Meanwhile, Derber manages to send creepy letters to Sarah and his other former captives via the FBI while imprisoned. With Derber’s first parole hearing looming, Sarah resolves to fly cross-country and attempt to follow the clues in these missives to find evidence that might put the sadist away for good. As Sarah and the other three victims probe Derber’s ties to a cultlike church that his wife attends, Zan delivers harrowing, if often far-fetched, and not for the faint-hearted, action. 5-city author tour. Agent: Alexandra Machinist, Janklow & Nesbit Associates.

June 1, 2013
Ten years ago, Sarah Farber escaped a madman's cellar in Portland, Ore., where, for three years, she and her best friend, Jennifer, and two other girls were raped, tortured and starved. Now 31, the psychologically frail Sarah rarely budges from her supersecure New York apartment, where she goes by the name Caroline Morrow. But after she receives an insinuating letter from her imprisoned abductor, a college professor who was convicted only on kidnapping charges and may soon be paroled, Sarah risks re-entry into the world to find evidence that he murdered the still-missing Jennifer. Inspired by the stories of real-life abductees, including Jaycee Lee Dugard, Zan affectingly puts us inside the damaged Sarah's skin. The book depicts with harrowing efficiency the professor's sick brainwashing experiments involving mutilation, starvation, beatings and stabbings. We have to wonder whether someone still recovering from post-traumatic stress disorder would be so bold (or dumb) as to return to the scene of the atrocities and put herself in harm's way in investigating a bizarre BDSM cult with links to the evil professor. The title of the book is taken from a list of no-nos Sarah and Jennifer drew up before they were trapped in a cab and abducted: Never hitchhike, never enter parking garages at night, etc. Sarah handily overcomes other fears by flying around the country in search of answers after recruiting her other former cellar mates, edgy goth punk Tracy and oddly readjusted investment banker's daughter Christine. The cast of characters keeps the plot afloat. There certainly is something to be said for a mystery that features as many strong females as this one. Zan's first novel is a haunting depiction of the emotional scars left on women held in captivity.

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February 1, 2013

Best friends Sarah and Jennifer should have paid attention to one entry on their "Never List": never accept a freely offered cab ride. With two other girls, they ended up being held prisoner for three years by a sadist, and Jennifer didn't survive. Now their abductor is about to be released from prison, and Sarah, frightened by the scarily freakish letters he's been sending her, launches a cross-country investigation of her own. If you've got steel nerves, which I don't.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2013

Although best friends Sarah and Jennifer spent their entire childhood compiling the "Never List"-- a set of detailed instructions designed to keep them safe from harm--it wasn't enough to protect them from the sadist who abducted the girls from their college campus and kept them chained in a dark basement for three years while subjecting them to physical and psychological torture. A decade after Sarah's escape from captivity, she continues to struggle with the knowledge that Jennifer did not survive. But when Sarah learns that her kidnapper is coming up for parole, she decides that it's time to confront, once and for all, the terrible events of her past. VERDICT This fast-paced, disturbing thriller boasts a chilling premise as well as a layered first-person narrative full of shocking twists and turns. [See Prepub Alert, 2/1/13.]

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.