The private calm of Paradise Plaza, a posh Santa Barbara health spa, is shattered when two guests are kidnapped during an early morning hike. Stanford junior Holly Constantine and hot TV star Vanessa Wyatt form an uneasy alliance in their sensory-deprived captivity, while an unorthodox Internet ransom demand from a group of eco-nuts calling itself Parks for People seeks public contributions to create California parks in unlikely locations. Holly's parents, Beverly Hills entertainment lawyers, hold the media at bay as they coordinate the ransom funding. A determined stalker, old secrets, and a murder complicate the race against the clock. Taffy Cannon is the author of fifteen novels, including "Convictions: A Novel of the Sixties" and five travel mysteries: "Guns and Roses," "Murder Will Travel," "Murder Pans Out," "Fall Into Death," and "Keys to Death."California State Bar attorney investigator Nan Robinson is featured in "A Pocketful of Karma," "Tangled Roots," and "Class Reunions Are Murder." Her stand-alone Southern California mysteries are "Open Season on Lawyers," "Paradise Lost," and "Blood Matters." She completed "The Tumbleweed Murders," begun by her late colleague Rebecca Rothenberg, and wrote an Academy Award-nominated short film, "Doubletalk."Her nonfiction books are "Caregiving 101" and "SibCare: The Trip You Never Planned to Take."Taffy Cannon is a Chicago native and graduate of Duke University. She has lived in southern California for most of her adult life and was honored as Carlsbad Citizen of the Year for managing the Friends Bookstore at the Carlsbad City Library.
