Excerpt from Alice in Jeopardy by Ed McBain, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

The phone rings.

Alice picks up the receiver at once.

"Hello?" she says.

"Mrs. Glendenning?"

The same woman again.

"Yes," Alice says. "Listen, Miss -- "

"No, you listen," the woman says. "Don't interrupt, just listen. We want a quarter of a million dollars in cash. Hundred-dollar bills. Get the money together by noon tomorrow. We'll call again then. Get the money. Or the kiddies die."

And she hangs up.

Alice puts the receiver back on the wall hook, and stands silently at the kitchen counter for what is perhaps thirty seconds. Then she reaches for the phone again, and immediately calls Charlie Hobbs.

From Alice in Jeopardy, chapter 1, pages 3-23. Copyright © 2005 by Hui Corp. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt maybe reproduced without written permission from the publisher.