Third Degree by Greg Iles

 

Things are not good at the Shields house.  Warren is a doctor and Laurel is a teacher and they have two healthy children and a great house.  All should be well but things are happening.  Warren has been acting strange for a while and Laurel awakes to find that he has been up all night, desperately looking for something he won't disclose.  His partner has been scamming the government and the due date has come; there is an investigation headed their way.  Laurel has her own problems.  She just found out that she is pregnant and doesn't know if it is Warren's or her lover Dan's child.

Things get worse as the day progresses.  Laurel leaves work early with a migraine.  She arrives home to find that Warren is still there and even worse off after no sleep for forty hours.  He confronts her with a love letter and demands to know the identity of her lover.  Laurel has no intention of telling him that and soon finds herself a prisoner.  When the children come home from school, Warren now has three hostages.  

Greg Iles is known for his suspense novels and for writing about his home state of Mississippi.  This novel is full of thrills and the reader doesn't know from one page to the next what will happen next.  Dan is ex-military and the standoff between those locked in the house and the police outside is full of excitement and thrills.  This book is recommended for thriller readers.