Play Book Tag discussion

Best man Richard Chapman hosts a bachelor party for his younger brother in his posh Westchester house. Richard knows that his brother's crowd will more than likely hire female entertainment but he is shocked, and intrigued, when two beautiful young ladies and their bodyguards enter the party. The girls, Alexandra and Sonja, are stunning - and young. Richard is quite taken with Alexandra but he stops her advances as he is a happily married man with a young daughter. Suddenly, Sonja attacks one of the bodyguards with a kitchen knife and the other guard is shot during a scuffle with Alexandra. The slightly ribald bachelor party has now turned into a double homicide crime scene and the two suspects are on the run.

Richard's wife Kristin is devastated and mortified that such a horrific thing happened in their family home. Richard admits that he was tempted by Alexandra, but nothing happened. Their 9-year-old daughter Melissa is confused about the party and worried about her parents marriage. Meanwhile, Alexandra and Sonja, are running from the police and the Russian syndicate who turned the young women into sex slaves when they were very young teens. They know that if they are caught, they will be killed.

The story is told by 3 different characters: Richard, Kristin and Alexandra. Alexandra's story is heartbreaking and devastatingly cruel while Richard and Kristin are just two normal people caught up in a nightmare beyond their control. I have read several books by Bohjalian and this one was so different from his others that it's almost like another author wrote it. The story itself is a good one but the language and subject matter are a bit hard to take at times.