It's Christmas Eve and Detective Alex Cross is called away from his family to resolve a horrific hostage situation that is spiraling out of control.

FBI agent Dave Richman from Danger in the Shadows is back. He's about to meet Kate O'Malley, and his life will never be the same. She's a hostage negotiator. He protects people. He's about to find out that falling in love with a hostage negotiator is one thing, but keeping her safe is another! Introducing the O'Malleys, an inspirational group of seven, all abandoned or orphaned as teens, who have made the choice to become a loyal and committed family....

A top nuclear scientist turns homicidal, taking an innocent family hostage at gunpoint. Gideon Crew, a colleague of the scientist at Los Alamos, is called in to talk the man down. But the standoff ends in an explosion of violence. When the authorities discover the scientist's body is intensely radioactive, and that he had recently embraced Islamic extremism, all hell breaks loose.

What initially appears to be a bank heist turns into something far more complex and deadly. When forensic scientist Theresa MacLean seizes the opportunity to trade places with the city's best hostage negotiator, she must decide what she is willing to sacrifice in order to save the lives of innocent people as well as her own.

As commander of the nation's most elite FBI counterterrorism unit, agent Max Bhagat leads by hard-driving example: pushing himself to the limit and beyond, taking no excuses, and putting absolutely nothing ahead of his work. That includes his deep feelings for Gina Vitagliano, the woman who won his admiration and his heart with her courage under fire. But when the shocking news reaches him that Gina has been killed in a terrorist bombing, nothing...

"If you're a security expert, what do you do if your fiancée suddenly goes missing, presumably kidnapped? If you're Daniel Trent, a highly trained specialist in hostage negotiation, the answer is simple: you find out who took her and you make them talk. But what if your chief suspect is taken as well? How do you get him back quickly--and alive--so you can find out what really happened to your fiancé"--

Kidnap negotiator Thea Paris has spent her entire life with survivor's guilt, following an unspeakable childhood tragedy. At eight years old, she watched, frozen in fear, as her twelve-year-old brother, Nikos, was abducted from their home in Kanzi, Africa. Although he was recovered nine months later, he was never the same after that; worse, Thea discovers that she was supposed to have been the target. This defining experience drives Thea to become...

Jaime Segura, a young immigrant to Britain, takes several hostages at a nursery school and insists that he will only speak to MI6 accountant Ben Whistler, who discovers that the hostage-taking may be connected to a large sum of missing government money.

When sheriff Milt Kovaks arrests Darrell Blanton for murder, Darnell's mother, Eunice, storms an inn where detective Kovaks' wife is hosting a bachelorette party and threatens to kill a partygoer every ten minutes until her son is released.

FBI agent Dave Richman takes it upon himself to protect hostage negotiator Kate O'Malley after she is targeted by a terrorist who is trying to set her up to take the blame for blowing up an airplane.