Out of Nowhere

Price: $9.99
(as of Feb 14, 2024 23:39:11 UTC – Details)

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Sandra Brown comes an emotional thriller where the lives of a young mother and a high-rolling consultant collide under devastating circumstances—culminating in a desperate manhunt that will change their futures forever. 
 
At a Texas county fair, amidst carousels and a bustling midway, children’s book author Elle Portman is enjoying a rare night out with her favorite cowboy: her two-year-old son, Charlie. But just as they’re about to head home, the unthinkable happens: a shooter opens fire into the crowd, causing widespread panic to erupt all around them.

Also caught in the melee was corporate consultant Calder Hudson. Arrogant, self-centered, and high off his latest career win, he’s frustrated and confused when he wakes up in the hospital after undergoing emergency surgery on his arm.  The doctor tells him that he was lucky—that as far as gunshot wounds go, he pulled through remarkably well.  Others weren’t so lucky, which instills in Calder a furious determination to get justice . . . a goal shared by Elle.

Their chance encounter at the police station leads to a surprising and inexplicable gravitation to one another, but even as the attraction grows, Elle and Calder can’t help but wonder if the unimaginable tragedy that brought them together is too painful and too complicated to sustain—especially while the shooter remains at large.

Includes a Reading Group Guide.

From the Publisher

A Note from Sandra Brown

Out of Nowhere isn’t a story about death. It’s a story about survival.

The destinies of two strangers collide in an instant of unthinkable tragedy. If not for that unpredictable, inexplicable occurrence, it’s unlikely that Elle and Calder ever would have met. But because of a caprice of physics, their fates became intertwined.

I didn’t particularly want to write a story that begins with a mass shooting. In fact, it’s a subject I would ordinarily avoid. I, as I’m sure you do, as we all do, react to hearing of another shooting with dismay, repugnance, and abject sadness. Caught in a situation of such incomprehensible ruthlessness, I can’t even imagine the terror one experiences.

But, as storytellers are wont to do, I did. Imagine, that is.

I tried to imagine how one copes after surviving such a horrifying, traumatic event. How does one pick up where their life left off and attempt to rebuild it, reshape it into some form of normalcy, when pieces of it are now fractured or missing?

I confess that even as I was writing this story, I knew my words were inadequate to describe the rending of heart and spirit that Elle and Calder were suffering.

To anyone reading it who has come even close to an experience such as that of my characters, I apologize for presuming that I know what it’s like. I don’t. But I did my best, with as much authenticity and empathy as I could, to portray the struggle of staying afloat in the wake of a catastrophe.

In news reports, “another mass shooting,” has become such a familiar refrain, it’s far too easy to tune it out, to forget the name of that school, that town, that place of worship, that shopping mall or entertainment venue or office building where lives were lost and others shattered. We as a society, as individual human beings, must never become inured.

So, back to what motivated me to write this story? I suppose it was to honor the casualties. I rank the survivors among them.

Sandra Brown

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0BP2HW59K
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grand Central Publishing (August 1, 2023)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 1, 2023
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3273 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 417 pages