The Driver: A Novel

• DUTTON.

From the creator of the TV show s comes a “riveting, smart and funny” (Harlan Coben) debut thriller. “Everything a great thriller should be—always smart, often funny, and relentlessly exciting. I loved every page.”—Scott Turow Michael Skellig is a limo driver waiting for his client in the alley behind an upscale hotel. He’s spent the past twenty-eight hours ferrying around Bismarck Avila, a celebrity skateboard mogul who isn’t going home any time soon. Suddenly the wind begins to speak to Skellig in the guttural accent of the Chechen torturer he through the eye in Yemen a decade ago: Troubletroubletrouble. Skellig has heard these warnings before—he’s an Army Special Forces sergeant whose limo company is staffed by a ragtag band of wounded veterans, including his Afghan interpreter—and he knows to listen carefully. Skellig runs inside just in time to save Avila from two men but too late for one of Avila’s bodyguards—and wakes up hours later in the hospital, the only person of interest in custody for the murder. Complicating matters further is the appearance of Detective Delilah Groopman of the LAPD, gorgeous and b, for whom Skellig has always held a candle. As for Avila? He’s willing to help clear Skellig’s name under one peculiar condition: that Skellig become Avila’s personal chauffeur. A cushy gig for any driver, except for the fact that someone is clearly trying to kill Avila, and Skellig is literally the only person sitting between Avila and a bullet to the head. "It is so hard to be unique in crime fiction and Hart Hanson has done it big time with The Driver. It’s got all the ingredients: high risks, strong momentum, unseen turns and a set of gripping characters. You can’t ask for more!" --Michael Connelly “The Driver has it all—crisp dialogue, complex characters, and a plot that zips at breathtaking speed.”—Kathy Reichs “The Driver is grim, funny, violent, and moving—all on the same page.”—T. Jefferson Parker