“What a box of tricks! This full-throttle thriller, dark and driving, rivals Agatha Christie for sheer ingenuity and James Patterson for flat-out speed. Swift, sharp, and relentless.” — A. J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the WindowA brilliant, edgy thriller about four strangers, a blizzard, a kidnapped child, and a determined young woman desperate to unmask and … strangers, a blizzard, a kidnapped child, and a determined young woman desperate to unmask and outwit a vicious psychopath.
A kidnapped little girl locked in a stranger’s van. No help for miles. What would you do?
On her way to Utah to see her dying mother, college student Darby Thorne gets caught in a fierce blizzard in the mountains of Colorado. With the roads impassable, she’s forced to wait out the storm at a remote highway rest stop. Inside are some vending machines, a coffee maker, and four complete strangers.
Desperate to find a signal to call home, Darby goes back out into the storm . . . and makes a horrifying discovery. In the back of the van parked next to her car, a little girl is locked in an animal crate.
Who is the child? Why has she been taken? And how can Darby save her?
There is no cell phone reception, no telephone, and no way out. One of her fellow travelers is a kidnapper. But which one?
Trapped in an increasingly dangerous situation, with a child’s life and her own on the line, Darby must find a way to break the girl out of the van and escape.
But who can she trust?
With exquisitely controlled pacing, Taylor Adams diabolically ratchets up the tension with every page. Full of terrifying twists and hairpin turns, No Exit will have you on the edge of your seat and leave you breathless.
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No Exit is everything I want in a thriller: ingeniously crafted, unapologetically relentless, and shamelessly suspenseful. The twists go off like a series of expertly planted detonations and the tension never lets up. I was blown away. No Exit is a damn good time.
Did you ever read a book and just KNOW it should be a movie? I’ll be shocked if a filmmaker doesn’t pick this story up. According to my Kindle, I devoured 70% of the novel in one sitting. I would have finished the whole thing if I hadn’t needed to call it a night and get some sleep. The next day I tuned out everything else and dug in, irritated by any distraction that pulled me from the pages. This book held me GLUED!!!
Darby Thorne is a wonderful protagonist, an average college student who likes to take rubbings of gravestones. When a blizzard strands her at a rest area with four strangers, she makes a horrifying discovery. One of them has a young girl caged in a van outside.
Hooboy! I applaud the author for creating one of the most twisted, psychotic villains I’ve ever encountered in a novel. Even more for giving Darby the inner strength and courage to stand up to this predator. She is clever and strong, but never portrayed as a kick-ass hero. She does what she does out of necessity, full of doubts and weaknesses along the way. Jay (the girl in the cage) is also one tough cookie, as she proves when she and Darby team up.
Throughout the long night, the two play a game of cat and mouse with Jay’s abductor. One that involves intellect, physical strength, endurance, and constantly puts Darby in the crosshairs of impossible situations. Her goal is to survive until morning when snow plows are certain to reach the rest area. In the meantime, she is cut off from the world with a dying cell phone, a young girl depending on her, and a kidnapper determined to silence her. It’s hard to say more about this book without giving away spoilers.
There are numerous twists and surprises along the way with a constant buildup of suspense. Sometimes it creeps, sinister and edgy, other times it explodes. The characters are well developed, and the snowbound setting adds a suffocating feeling of claustrophobia. I can’t recommend this book highly enough. If I could give it more than five stars I would. I have no doubt this will become one of my favorite reads of 2019.
I absolutely flew through this book!! This was an exciting psychological thriller. Some parts were a bit gory, but I plowed past them. Also, some of the situations stretched my credibility, but I suppose adrenaline can make you do some incredible things.
I look forward to reading more novels by Taylor Adams, this one was a thrill ride!
#NoExit #TaylorAdams
Darby is driving through a terrible storm when she’s forced to take shelter at a rest stop in the middle of nowhere. There are four other people waiting out the storm, and one of them has a child caged in the back of their van. When Darby finds the child, she has to decide how she’s going to save the little girl.
This book does not let up on the suspense all the way through. It dives into the action and keeps going until the final line. I had such a fun time reading this book. It reminded me of Die Hard but with a female lead (and not a cop). But it’s also darker and more gruesome.
No Exit is the kind of book you imagine as a movie while you’re reading it. And it would make a fantastic thriller film. I definitely recommend this one if you want a fast-paced page-turner.
What a box of tricks! This full-throttle thriller, dark and driving, rivals Agatha Christie for sheer ingenuity and James Patterson for flat-out speed. Swift, sharp, and relentless.
This book was TENSE. It’s billed as a thriller, but this felt more like horror to me. Imagine that claustrophobic feeling of The Shining (minus the supernatural) and the relentless pursuing villain of the Halloween movies and this is kind of what you get in this book. I read the whole thing in one sitting because I had to find out what happened. There are some brutal/gross things that happen because…horror, so if you’re sensitive to things like that, be warned. I also found myself laughing a few times because the best horror usually has some dark humor weaved in. If you’re looking for a nail-biter, I’d recommend this one.
Peerless pacing, an engrossing plot, and an unmatched Pez dispenser reference! With shades of Stephen King, flashes of Gillian Flynn’s style, and a pace that rivals The DaVinci Code, Taylor Adams has created a gripping page-turner. Be warned: The gore and violence sometimes reach Kill Bill levels, and you may need to close your eyes through the more graphic scenes, but the writing and story line will leave you desperate to learn what comes next in this life-and-death battle between a distraught college student and the “big devil” she’s up against.
College sophomore Darby Thorne is my favorite kind of heroine. She’s smart, strong-willed, and downright ferocious. And she is unaware of all these prized attributes until she finds herself in a truly nightmarish scenario, and rises to meet the terrifying challenges that threaten her, and others.
The synopsis for No Exit is scary all by itself. And I cannot remember the last time I read a book that left me feeling mentally exhausted upon completion; and I mean that in the best possible way. Taylor Adams does a fantastic job of setting a page-turning, menacing tone from the outset, and then continually ratchets up the sensations of profound dread that escalate into edge-of-your-seat, nail-biting scenes I will not soon forget.
Darby Thorne and Jay Nissen are now two of my all-time favorite characters. Ever. And one of their best scenes can be found in the final chapters when Darby tells Jay (the little heroine of the story): “We’re not waiting for the police. We’re not waiting for a rescue. I’ve been waiting all damn night and no one’s rescued me. We ARE the rescue. Say it, Jay–WE ARE THE RESCUE.”
It’s an important, hard-learned lesson passed from a young woman to a woman-to-be: Don’t wait for a hero. Be a hero.
Such a simple yet brilliant premise: absolutely hooked from page 1!
I saw multiple mentions of “No Exit” when someone in a Facebook group asked”what book was gripping and thrilling from the first few pages all the way to end?” Yep, that’s “No Exit” — which then makes it one those must-be-read-in-one-sitting books. Whoa. Having driven for 15 years up a snowy canyon interstate to 7,000 feet every work day, I already knew the horror of windshield wipers not working, phone batteries dying, skidding into snow banks, worrying about ski tourists who never drove an SUV, and always on edge with every snow flurry (let’s hear it for “work from home”). So, from the moment Darby starts her treacherous drive, I was on edge. Darby discovers a little girl locked in a cage inside a van (belonging to who in the rest stop?) and then page after page we’re with her, wondering how she’ll save the girl, save herself, figure who the bad guy or guys (or girl) is, when the damn storm will be over, and who, if anyone, can rescue them. I read this in 100 degree temps, but I was freezing mentally. Terrific plot — I can see this easily as a movie (the book will always be better though).
4.5 stars.
Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): NO. Well, not that I remember as I was speeding through the book.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO. Everything was covered with snow!
Darby is traveling through the mountains to see her dying mother before it is too late when a blizzard hits. While attempting to find a cell phone signal, she sees a child’s hand peer through the window of a van in the parking lot. Is it for real? Is there really a child in the back of the van. Who can she trust?
This is a keep you on the edge of your seat thriller from page one to the very end. This would be a great movie with lots of action-packed scenes.
This was an enjoyable, fast-paced read as the tension was high throughout. However, at times it seemed a bit over top with the main character having to escape one situation and fall right into another.
Trigger warnings: Child abuse/neglect and as with most thrillers violence.
nail biting good
One of the best books I’ve listened to. I want more like this!!
Great book
This was by far the best book I have read in a long time !! I can’t wait till his new one comes out. Could not put it down.
This was one of the best books i have ever read. 10000/10 i would recommend
This is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time and I read a lot. It kept me on the edge of my seat all the way to the end. It had one of the best female characters in any book I’ve read. If you are looking for a surprising suspenseful book this is the perfect one!!!!!!
This is absolutely the most suspenseful and unpredictable thriller I’ve ever read! There are twists and turns throughout even up to the very last page!
I couldn’t stop reading!! It was so fantastic! Full of twists and turns every time I thought I figured it out, it tricked me again! I loved it!
Good, fairly riveting story but there were a couple of logistical issues that kept distracting me. Maybe I will read it again sometime and they will be satisfied on a re-read but I doubt it.