The grass is always greener on the other side and everyone from Fievel the mouse (An American Tail) to Maria (West Side Story) dreams of making a new life in America. Unfortunately America's stringent immigration policies exclude the many and for those upon whom the legal doorways of entry are firmly closed there are many other ways of beginning the new life of which they dream. Many try independently and fail, many more pay huge amounts of money to human traffickers in return for falsified papers and jobs in the United States. But for everyone successful illegal immigrant there are countless thousands who get turned away, die trying or worse still enter the land of their dreams only to find it houses their biggest nightmare.

Orphaned Mila has nothing left in her home town of Kryvicy. She and a friend save what little they have and buy positions as nannies for American families. They know that they do not have the correct papers and the journey will be arduous, perhaps they are all too aware that the jobs may not exist but someday some how they will live the American dream, if they can survive the American nightmare.

Tess Gerritsen presents Mila's journey in an accessible and addictively readable manner. From Mila's entry into Mexico to her first glimpses of what her new life has in store, through the brutality and into events so graphically described that at times the mere thought of what happened to this fictional character make you feel queasy. Although this is fiction it mimics reality a little too closely for comfort and on more than one occasion I recalled a similar new story which merely added to the feeling of dread and a deep seated knowledge of what would happen next.

There were times though when even the expected was unexpected and several plot twists developed which kept you on the edge of your seat.

Like all Tess Geritsen's previous novels this is brilliantly written, incredibly detailed and addictively gripping.