Out of Nowhere

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(as of Aug 07, 2024 17:12:13 UTC – Details)

From a #1 New York Times bestselling author, an emotional thriller where the lives of a young mother and a high-rolling consultant collide under devastating circumstances.

 At a Texas county fair, children’s book author Elle Portman is enjoying a rare night out with her favorite cowboy: her two-year-old son, Charlie. But just as they’re about to head home, the unthinkable happens: a shooter opens fire into the crowd, causing widespread panic to erupt all around them. Also caught in the melee is corporate consultant Calder Hudson. When he wakes up in the hospital, he’s told he’s lucky. Others didn’t fare we well, which instills in Calder a furious determination to get justice.

A chance encounter with Elle at the police station leads to a surprising gravitation to one another. But even as the attraction grows, Elle and Calder can’t help but wonder if the unimaginable tragedy that brought them together is too painful to bear—especially while the shooter remains at large.

Includes a Reading Group Guide.

From the Publisher

A Note from Sandra Brown

Out of Nowhere isn’t a story about death. It’s a story about survival.

The destinies of two strangers collide in an instant of unthinkable tragedy. If not for that unpredictable, inexplicable occurrence, it’s unlikely that Elle and Calder ever would have met. But because of a caprice of physics, their fates became intertwined.

I didn’t particularly want to write a story that begins with a mass shooting. In fact, it’s a subject I would ordinarily avoid. I, as I’m sure you do, as we all do, react to hearing of another shooting with dismay, repugnance, and abject sadness. Caught in a situation of such incomprehensible ruthlessness, I can’t even imagine the terror one experiences.

But, as storytellers are wont to do, I did. Imagine, that is.

I tried to imagine how one copes after surviving such a horrifying, traumatic event. How does one pick up where their life left off and attempt to rebuild it, reshape it into some form of normalcy, when pieces of it are now fractured or missing?

I confess that even as I was writing this story, I knew my words were inadequate to describe the rending of heart and spirit that Elle and Calder were suffering.

To anyone reading it who has come even close to an experience such as that of my characters, I apologize for presuming that I know what it’s like. I don’t. But I did my best, with as much authenticity and empathy as I could, to portray the struggle of staying afloat in the wake of a catastrophe.

In news reports, “another mass shooting,” has become such a familiar refrain, it’s far too easy to tune it out, to forget the name of that school, that town, that place of worship, that shopping mall or entertainment venue or office building where lives were lost and others shattered. We as a society, as individual human beings, must never become inured.

So, back to what motivated me to write this story? I suppose it was to honor the casualties. I rank the survivors among them.

Sandra Brown

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0BP2HW59K
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grand Central Publishing (August 1, 2023)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 1, 2023
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3273 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 417 pages