Jeffrey Deaver’s latest thriller takes place in the woods of rural Wisconsin. The 911 phone call came through to the emergency line in rural Kennesha County, but the message was only one word: “this”... before the line went dead.

Todd Jackson still thought it necessary to inform Sheriff Tom Dahl.

Maybe it was nothing and then again maybe it was something. And so Tom had to figure who he might send to the location of the call. He decided the best person was Brynn McKenzie. Brynn was one of the few women in the sheriff’s department, but she was one of his best officers.

Little did he know what had occurred in an isolated house near Lake Mondac, one of the many lakes in his county.

Emma and Steven Feldman and their friend, Michelle, had gone there for a few days of peace and quiet, not realizing that they were being watched by two assassins, Hart and his new associate, Lewis.

Hart and Lewis break into the house, killing Emma and Steven, not realizing that there is a third person in the house. Michelle is upstairs when the attack happens, sneaks downstairs and, seeing one of the men put down his gun, chances grabbing it and trying to escape.

She is able to wound Hart, run from the house, shoot out two tires on each car and disappear into the woods. The two men attempt to find her but she has already gotten deep into the woods.

Brynn cautiously approaches the house even though she has received a phone call from the Sheriff saying that he got another call saying the first call was a mistake and everything is fine. But Brynn suspects everything isn’t fine.

She enters the house and finds the two bodies. The house is empty at the moment because the two men are searching the woods for Michelle.

They burst back into the house but Brynn is able to get off a couple of shots and run for her car. Gunfire is exchanged, but she is able to get the car into reverse and attempt to back up to the road and get out of there and get help. She miscalculates the end of the long drive and her car tumbles off a precipice and goes into the nearby lake. She escapes from the car and the lake and makes for the woods with the men in hot pursuit.

Soon after, she stumbles on Michelle and they are able to escape the two men for now! Brynn is freezing from the dunking in the lake and the two women know they have to keep on the move and somehow find some sanctuary to get dry and a change of clothes... and somehow call for help.

But even as she plans her escape, Brynn is thinking that these two murders are not just a robbery gone bad. These houses by the lake are quite isolated and this could only be a planned assassination. If Brynn and Michelle escape, Brynn knows she is going to have to follow the clues to the person who planned these murders.

Her intuition is correct because Emma Feldman is an important attorney in a federal investigation into illegal union activity back in Milwaukee. A union run by one Stanley Mankewitz. As the story unwinds, the background of the planned murders start to become clearer.

There are many terrific authors on the scene today, but there is no one who can quite scare you like Jeffrey Deaver. You are drawn into this plot so easily that you can feel like you are Brynn running through the woods, fighting to save your life.

You know one thing early on: Hart and Lewis are determined not leave anyone alive who may have stumbled on the scene — anyone!

As always with Deaver, there are more twists and turns and surprises that you could ever imagine. “The Bodies Left Behind” is available at your local book store and the Wake County Libraries.