Product Description

Carl Herbold enjoys being bad.  After all, he is terrifyingly good at it.  Stimulated by violence, he and his brother, Cecil, had easily graduated from being juvenile delinquents to full-blown killers.  And when Carl, serving a life sentence in an Arkansas penitentiary, carries out a daring escape with a fellow inmate, he heads back to where he began--Blewer County, Texas--and sets in motion events taht will threaten and change lives forever.

Ann Corbett had been widowed right before her son was born.  Beset by debt and personal tragedy, she faces the toughest challenge of her life--holding on to the ranch that is her son's birthright--unaware that she is at the center of Carl Herbold's vengeful plan.  Ezzy Hardge is a retired lawman who is haunted by the one crime he sacrificed everything to solve, but could not.  And Jack Sawyer, a seemingly easygoing cowboy and drifter whose past is shrouded in mystery, understands Herbold's twisted mind and his hate-filled lust for vengeance.  Risking exposure of his own troubled past, Jack arrives at Anna Corbett's ranch asking for work, but in reality hoping to protect the innocent deaf woman and her young son from Herbold's rage.

Carl Herbold's prison break draws them inexorably toward a day of reckoning: Ezzy, an over-the-hill peace officer seeking redemption; Jack, a man stalked by dark secrets he can no longer outrun; and Anna, a beautiful woman locked in silence and self-imposed isolation.  All must grapple with their own demons before their tumultuous confrontation with a diabolical killer.

Realistic, sharp-edged, and complex, Sandra Brown's Unspeakable is her best yet.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2317077 in Books
• Published on: 2007-12-01
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 512 pages

From Amazon.com
In Unspeakable, actor Gary Cole (In the Line of Fire, American Gothic) effectively drawls his way through Sandra Brown's latest sultry suspense. Using his natural voice throughout the story, Gary's exceptional acting skills and creative inflection bring an enlivened clarity to the characters. Recently escaped from prison, Carl Herbold heads for Texas to take his revenge on his stepfather, Delray Corbett, who had a hand in convicting him. Corbett fears Carl's reprisal will endanger the lives of his widowed daughter-in-law, Anna, and her small son David. The aging rancher finds an ally in Jack Sawyer, a mysterious drifter all too familiar with Carl's devious capabilities. Jack is drawn to Anna, and the deaf woman's silence speaks to his heart--a heart burdened with a painful secret that may keep the two apart. This superbly abridged audio packs the powerful punch of its author--all the way to a masterful end. (Running time: five hours, four cassettes) --Kate Breslin

From Publishers Weekly
A 20-year-old unsolved murder in a small East Texas town sets the stage for this fast-paced and romantically charged, if stiffly written, thriller, the latest (after Fat Tuesday) from the prolific Brown. Everyone in Blewer, Tex., assumes that the nefarious Herbold brothers, Carl and Cecil, murdered Patsy McCorkle two decades ago, but neither was ever charged with the killing. Carl, the more menacing brother, has spent those decades in an Arkansas prison for an unrelated crime. But now Carl has escaped and Blewer residents fear he might come back to town. Local rancher Delray Corbett has more to fear than mostAthe Herbolds are his estranged stepsons. So when drifter Jack Sawyer swaggers onto Delray's ranch looking for work, Delray hires him, thinking that Jack's presence will ease his mind regarding the safety of his deaf, widowed daughter-in-law, Anna, and her five-year-old son, David. But Delray doesn't know that Jake has a closer connection to Blewer, and to the Corbetts, than he's letting on. Brown's deftly plotted narrative twists and turns without losing hold of its suspense. Her characters are fully fleshed out, and she pays particular attention to Anna's situation as a deaf woman facing ignorance in a rural community. Some graphic sex and violence and the voices of these east Texan good (and bad) ol' boys animate this harrowing tale of crime, revenge and redemption. Major ad/promo; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club main selections.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Deaf widow Anna Corbett, her young son, and her father-in-law hire a drifter, Jack Sawyer, as a handyman on their small east Texas ranch. There's much to do around the place since Anna's husband died and his two wild stepbrothers were sent up for murder. Patriarch Delray Corbett wants to preserve the ranch despite increasing pressure from a smarmy developer. Jack's a hard worker, and he's deeply attracted to Anna and young David. Meanwhile, evil stepbrother Carl escapes from prison and sets off a chain reaction of robbery, brutality, and murder as he moves ever closer to the Corbett ranch. He's bent on revenge for being nailed by his daddy for a murder he claims he didn't commit. As the story plays out in a maelstrom of death and destruction, it becomes increasingly clear that Jack holds the key to Carl's alibi, an unsolved murder, and the mystery surrounding Anna's self-imposed silence. Brown (Fat Tuesday, LJ 5/1/97) is a master at weaving a story of romance, action, and suspense into a tight web that catches and holds the reader from first page to last. This is sure to be a hit with fans of her previous works and gain her an even wider readership. Highly recommended.
-ASusan Clifford, Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, CA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.