“Screw you, Bing Crosby.”

From Taylor Adams’ No Exit.

When college student Darby gets the news that her mother is going in for emergency surgery back home, she jumps in her car and races off without her charger or any other travel necessities.  The shortest route between her Colorado school and her Utah home is through the Rocky Mountains, but it isn’t short enough to beat the blizzard that overtakes her.  After a few near accidents, Darby is barely able to make it to the small Wanasho rest stop where she’ll have to wait for snowplows to clear off the roads.  When she goes inside the tiny rest stop, she meets four other trapped travelers: Ed (the struggling alcoholic), Ashley (the talkative people-person), Sandi (Ed’s cousin and busybody), and Lars (the strange, silent kid).  On a trip outside to find a signal with her quickly-dying phone, Darby glances in the window of the van next to her and sees a child locked in a cage.  Darby quickly realizes that she and the others are stuck in the middle of nowhere with a kidnapper, but which one is it?  As the storm rages on, Darby will have to figure out who the car belongs to, what she can do to protect the child locked in the cage, and who she can trust on what is sure to be a night from hell.

This psychological thriller is very quick to jump into the action, first with the few pages developing tension through the storm and then the discovery of the child in the van.  The chapters are relatively short allowing for a quick reading experience and the story is action-packed from cover to cover.  Adams does a brilliant job of developing the characters both as individuals and as a group of unknowns for the main character.  No Exit is a hard to put down book that is definitely worth the read.