Phillips opened her career with The Well and the Mine, winner of the Barnes & Noble Discover Award, then followed with the atmospheric dream piece Come in and Cover Me. Changing tack again, she offers a literary/thriller blend about a mother who's hustling her young son out of the zoo at day's end when she spots something that sends them both on the run. An LJ Editors' Spring Pick, p. 27.

Joan has brought her four-year-old son Lincoln to one of their favorite places, the zoo. Joan doesn't think too much about the distant popping noises she hears as she wrangles Lincoln and his toys in order to start heading out. As she nears the exit, though, she sees bodies and a man with a gun. Grabbing Lincoln and running in the opposite direction, she heads for a hiding place in the animal exhibits. Faced with multiple agonizing decisions over the next few hours, Joan tries to keep her son quiet and safe. But what about the teenagers they ran by and the baby she keeps hearing cry? Flashing back and forth among Joan, other trapped zoo visitors, and one of the three gunmen, the story sustains its intensity while also exposing the characters' inner thoughts. Phillips (A Little Bit of Spectacular; The Hidden Summer) skillfully captures the terror of the situation but also the beautiful minutiae of our everyday lives. This literary thriller encompasses three terrifying hours in the lives of some zoo visitors and the gunmen hunting them, movingly conveying much of the action through the viewpoint of a mother and her young son. VERDICT This would be an excellent book club pick. Also recommend to those who enjoy Rosamund Lupton's suspense novels. [See Prepub Alert, 1/23/17; "Editors' Spring Picks," LJ 2/15/17.]—Melissa DeWild, BookOps, New York P.L.

In this harrowing thriller from Phillips (Come in and Cover Me), set at a zoo in an unnamed city, one second Joan is pressing her four-year-old son, Lincoln, to pack his action figures so that they can get out by closing time, and the next gunshots ring out—turning their pleasurable afternoon routine into a parent's worst nightmare. Over the next three hours, Joan struggles to keep her tired, cranky preschooler quiet as she attempts to find a safe hiding place or escape route. She discovers that others are similarly trapped, and that there are apparently multiple shooters, who regard their prey—both human and animal—with no more compassion than if they were targeting Lincoln's plastic heroes and villains. In passages of unexpected beauty, Joan flashes back to earlier moments in her relationship with her son. In one poignant scene, a colobus monkey seemingly mourns its slain comrade ("standing so close that its long white fur mixes with the fur of the dead one, and Joan cannot tell where one stops and the other starts"). A searing exploration of motherhood at its most basic, this all-too-plausible horror story may haunt even readers with steely nerves and strong stomachs. Author tour. Agent: Kimberly Witherspoon, InkWell Management. (July)

Phillips, whose last two books were written for preteens, has produced a taut thriller with Lincoln, a precocious four-year-old, and his remarkable mother, Joan, at its center. Their plight is the focus of this almost minute-by-minute replay of events that take place one evening at the local zoo, as Joan attempts to protect her son from two gunmen who have opened fire. The reason for their rampage, and how Joan valiantly attempts to protect her child from them, keep the reader going as the tension ratchets up. Narrator Cassandra Campbell, who recreates all of the characters' voices and inner monologues —including those of the gunmen—has a remarkable ability to project a range of emotions with ease. She helps the reader imagine Joan, Lincoln, the shooters, and the handful of other characters who circle each other in the three or so hours during which the drama plays out. Listeners feel Joan's fear and anger as she talks her son into keeping himself together in the face of horrific violence. And most of all, Campbell reveals the bond between mother and son, as each tries to be brave for the sake of the other. A Viking hardcover. (July)