Cutout

A young woman from the Midwest, recipient of an unexpected college scholarship, is recruited into a lucrative courier job that shuttles her from Manhattan to Washington, DC. There’s a slight drawback: the previous two “cutouts” died by violence.

Sierra Kane—who has bounced from one foster family to another—faces an uncertain future when she receives an unapplied-for scholarship to Barnard College specifically designed for orphans whose academic records are merely above average. A second unexpected boon comes her way when another recipient of that somewhat mysterious scholarship offers her a part-time courier job.

Soon Sierra is caught up in a whirl of espionage and murder, with a new boyfriend who may or may not be part of a plot, a college mentor with a possible agenda of her own, and an FBI agent who rebuffs Sierra’s plea for help.

It’s a classic story of a small-town girl caught up in an overwhelming big-city world; but Sierra Kane is a young woman whose curiosity and determination will lead her to the truth ... and into more than one deadly confrontation.

Max Allan Collins and Barbara Collins, the married writing team behind Bombshell and Regeneration, and whose Antiques mystery series is a long-running fan favorite under the name Barbara Allan (of which Antiques Liquidation and Antiques Foe are also read by Gabrielle de Cuir)—have crafted a novella that is at once as timeless as a fairy tale and as modern as a headline.