'Thirteen days ago I made a mistake. A momentary slip, but enough to launch me into freefall, a life unravelling in my wake'Lewis Penn's single mistake was to change his life forever.A junior lawyer at the successful law firm, Madison & Vere, he quietly strikes deals, sits in the shadows in meetings and clicks through emails. Whenever he can, he visits his terminally ill brother. His life is altogether routine and fairly uneventful. Then one day he is trusted with a file that contains highly confidential paperwork . . . and subsequently loses it.Lewis' desperate attempts to retrace his steps are in vain, his client is trying to reach him on the phone, his job is on the line - he needs to find that file fast. But every move Lewis makes seems to be the wrong one, and when his home is ransacked, he becomes convinced he is being pursued. Driven to extreme, reckless, even paranoid, behaviour, Lewis is reassured by a mysterious email: an offer of help. But by now his whole world seems to be spiralling dangerously out of control . . .'Subtle and intense . . . sucks you in like a dream and holds you like a nightmare. One of this year's key debuts' Lee Child