Synopses & Reviews
The series that started it all!
In this powerful follow-up to his action-packed thriller The Kill Clause, Gregg Hurwitz, the new maestro of pulse-pounding suspense, ratchets up the excitement with another sensational page-turner featuring Tim Rackley, a driven lawman motivated by honor, morality, and a deep sense of justice.
Called back into the fold of the U.S. Marshals Service, Tim is tasked with retrieving Leah Henning, the daughter of a powerful Hollywood producer, from a mind-control cult. As Tim wends his way deep undercover into an insidious operation called The Program, he confronts a brand of mind-warping manipulation beyond his worst expectations.
Tim becomes enmeshed with a diverse band of characters—from the charismatic, messianic leader T. D. Betters to a cult reject burnout to the intelligent yet highly vulnerable Leah herself—and finds himself caught in a shadowy landscape of lies, manipulation, and terror. At stake: innocent minds—maybe even his own.
Review
“A cut above the usual thriller, with a cast of intriguing and complex characters who never fall into stereotype.” Capital Times
Review
“THE PROGRAM is pure nail-biting, stay-up-all-night suspense. Gregg Hurwitz rocks.” Harlan Coben
Review
“Extraordinarily satisfying...A gripping read from start to finish.” Booklist
Review
“Fascinating…intriguing…Filled with well-drawn characters, meticulous research and pulse-pounding action…easily one of the best thrillers of the year.” Chicago Sun-Times
Review
“Hurwitz again shows that he is a remarkable crime fiction writer, a solid member of the genres top echelon” Mystery News
Review
“Hurwitz has been tapped as a younger, hipper Grisham…he certainly delivers in terms of pure, propulsive readability.” Washington Post
Review
“A whiteknuckle journey…A compelling, riveting, deadsmart thriller…If you havent discovered Gregg Hurwitz yet, get to a bookstore!” Janet Evanovich
Review
“Tough, true, wellwritten, and memorable as Hell. Dray and Tim Rackley are uniquely believable and sympathetic heroes.” James Patterson
Review
“A riproaring thrill ride… A stick to your fingers read by a novelist at the top of his game.” Stephen J. Cannell
Review
“Grounded in character and believable detail, Hurwitzs thriller engages on every level.” Publishers Weekly
Review
“Thriller writing at its best…taut, energetic prose that sucks you in and holds you till the very last page.” Tess Gerritsen
Review
“Gregg Hurwitz handcuffs you to his story and holds your emotions hostage. Once you enter THE PROGRAM, theres no leaving.” Ridley Pearson
Synopsis
Leah Henning, the eighteen-year-old daughter
of a famous Hollywood producer, has vanished into
The Program -- a shadowy cult that practices mind-control
and manipulation, led by its brilliant, messianic leader
T.D. "Teacher" Betters. Leah surrendered her life,
looking for peace. She found Hell.
Called back into the fold of the U.S. Marshals Service -- having lost his own daughter to evil -- Tim Rackley is determined to infiltrate the malevolent society and bring the confused teenager home. But what is going on within The Program is more shocking and horrific than he ever imagined. And his determination to rescue Leah and countless other innocent, vulnerable minds from the Teacher's lies and machinations could cost Rackley much more than his life ... and plunge him deep into a terrible and inescapable darkness.
Synopsis
In this powerful follow-up to his action-packed thriller
The Kill Clause, Gregg Hurwitz, the new maestro of pulse-pounding suspense, ratchets up the excitement with another sensational page-turner featuring Tim Rackley, a driven lawman motivated by honor, morality, and a deep sense of justice.
Called back into the fold of the U.S. Marshals Service, Tim is tasked with retrieving Leah Henning, the daughter of a powerful Hollywood producer, from a mind-control cult. As Tim wends his way deep undercover into an insidious operation called The Program, he confronts a brand of mind-warping manipulation beyond his worst expectations.
Tim becomes enmeshed with a diverse band of characters—from the charismatic, messianic leader T. D. Betters to a cult reject burnout to the intelligent yet highly vulnerable Leah herself—and finds himself caught in a shadowy landscape of lies, manipulation, and terror. At stake: innocent minds—maybe even his own.
About the Author
Gregg Hurwitz is the #1
LA Times bestselling author of
The Tower,
Minutes to Burn,
Do No Harm,
The Kill Clause, and most recently,
The Program. In the course of his research, he has sneaked onto demolition ranges with Navy SEALs, swam with sharks in Galápagos, and gone undercover into mind-control cults. His novels have been feature selections for all four major literary book clubs, chosen as Book Sense Picks, and translated into seven languages. He adapted
Rogue Warrior for Jerry Bruckheimer Films and his own novel,
The Kill Clause, for Paramount Pictures. He holds a B.A. from Harvard in English and Psychology, and a master's degree in Shakespearean tragedy from Trinity College, Oxford. He1s published numerous short stories, articles, reviews, and academic articles. He has taught or lectured at Harvard, UCLA, and USC.
Gregg is the critically acclaimed, #1 LA Times bestselling author of The Tower, Minutes to Burn, Do No Harm, The Kill Clause, The Program, and coming soon, Troubleshooter. His novels have been feature selections for all four major literary book clubs, chosen as Book Sense Picks, and translated into seven languages. He lives in Los Angeles, where he is currently writing the next Tim Rackley novel and the screen adaptation of The Kill Clause for Paramount Pictures.
Gregg undertook extensive research in preparation for writing The Program. Not only did he acquaint himself with social psychology and cult dynamics through interviews with experts, talking with family members of cult victims, reading academic articles on mind control techniques, and viewing bootleg tapes of cult indoctrination practices in action, but he even submitted to some cult testing and went undercover to cult meetings. The result is the Program, a cult that he created from the ground up, and Terrance Donald Betters, the fiery, charismatic leader who Tim Rackley, in his second outing, must bring down.
As a thriller novelist, Gregg has had the pleasure of interacting with a wide range of consultants, from police officers, to Army Rangers, to FBI agents, and he's proud to count many of them now among his friends.As it seems everyone has preconceived notions of agencies such as the FBI or LAPD, Gregg started asking his contacts who they consider the most stand-up, ethical guys they've worked with.The answers kept driving him back to the Marshal Service which gave Gregg the idea for the protagonist of The Kill Clause. US Marshal Tim Rackley, a dangerous man of honor, who is very good at his job -- until everything he believes in is shattered by the brutal murder of his own daughter and he's forced to explore his own deadly options outside of the law.
Gregg's research for The Kill Clause included consulting with (the legend himself) US Marshal Tony Perez, learning how to pick locks, firing a bevy of handguns, and doing barrel rolls and flips in a stunt plane. Gregg Hurwitz's father, sister, and grandfather were all physicians, so growing up, he was regaled at dinnertime with tales of swallowed quarters and severed fingers. He was also subjected to vigorous discussion regarding the boundaries of medical ethics, which provided him a foundation for writing Do No Harm. In the course of researching the novel, he shadowed doctors in the UCLA emergency room, harassed government operatives to teach him surveillance techniques, and delved into psychological research on childhood trauma.
Minutes to Burn originated during Hurwitz's research travel in the Galápagos, where he confronted marine iguanas on lava plains, hiked through the islands' curious Scalesia forests, and contended with enormous crab spiders in shower stalls and toilet bowls. Upon his return, he spent months tracking down scientific experts around the world ecologists, geologists, entomologists, virologists continuing to indulge his fascination in the archipelago and to flesh out what would become Minutes to Burn. While undertaking the military research for the novel, Hurwitz dealt with an extensive network of Navy SEALs and related operators. He was obligated to familiarize himself with sidearms, meals-ready-to-eat, M-16s, SWAT ranges, and hand-to-hand techniques -- much to the derisive amusement of attendant Navy SEALs.
Hurwitz grew up in the Bay Area. While completing a BA from Harvard and a master's from Trinity College, Oxford in Shakespearean tragedy, he wrote his first novel, The Tower, a psychological thriller set in and around San Francisco. He was the undergraduate scholar-athlete of the year at Harvard for his pole-vaulting exploits, and played college soccer in England, where he was a Knox fellow. Hurwitz has written several screenplays, published academic articles and short stories, and taught or lectured at Harvard, UCLA, and USC.