The Timer Game (Grace Descanso, Book 1) [Hardcover]

Susan Arnout Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 8, 2008

Grace Descanso was going to be a pediatric heart surgeon---she was a brilliant up-and-comer with a bright future in a heartbreaking, innovative field. Then she took two months off to work in a clinic in Guatemala, and something happened there that nearly destroyed her. She won’t talk about why, but she quit medicine and nearly killed herself with drink. Finally, inch by inch, she pulled it all together for her new baby girl. Now, five years later, though she’s sworn off practicing as a doctor, Grace is using her science background as a crime scene tech in San Diego and going to AA meetings, scraping by and living to be a mom to five-year-old Katie. 
     Everything falls apart again when in the middle of processing a crime scene Grace shoots a madman after he’s killed two of her colleagues and after he’s called her by name, in a bizarre kind of warning, about someone he called “the Spikeman.”  A day later, her daughter is kidnapped right out from under her, and instead of a ransom note, the kidnapper sends her on a harrowing twenty-four-hour scavenger hunt, laying out clues and giving out deadlines, leading her carefully, terrifyingly closer to Katie---and to him.
     The Timer Game is a pulse-pounding race-against-time novel of suspense from a talented writer.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Reading much like an extended episode of CSI, Smith's repetitive debut chronicles the travails of Grace Descanso, a San Diego crime scene technician and single mother who once had a promising future in pediatric cardiology. After a deadly shooting at a crime scene, Grace is plunged into a cat-and-mouse game that forces her to confront her traumatic past. When her five-year-old daughter, Katie, is kidnapped and Grace receives a series of cryptic riddles, she races against the clock to save Katie. Grace must also uncover the dirty secrets of the Center for BioChimera, a biomedical research institution and hospital with ties to her past and Katie's disappearance. Grace turns to her ex-lover, a CNN reporter, for help, and together they must figure out the full extent of a medical nightmare stretching from California to Guatemala. Despite a nail-biting premise, Smith can't maintain the suspense, and the reader soon tires of following Grace as she solves riddle after riddle. Those familiar with thriller genre conventions may solve the mystery of Grace's past long before it's officially revealed. (Jan.)
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Review

Advance Praise for The Timer Game

“The Timer Game is a highly entertaining, intelligent, original yet classic medical thriller. Susan Arnout Smith has written a gem here---memorable characters and a fast and furious ticking-clock plot. A really good read!” 
---John Lescroart, author of The Suspect

“As riveting as a ticking bomb, The Timer Game by Susan Arnout Smith will chill you, thrill you, and satisfy your deepest cravings for adventure. Smith is more than a terrific writer; she's a master in the making. Read this book.” 
---Gayle Lynds, author of The Last Spymaster

“Explosive and terrifying, The Timer Game, an original novel with provocative themes and compelling characterizations, moves along at a pulse-pounding pace. Filled with stomach-churning images and guaranteed to satisfy readers hungry for a fast and furious thriller, The Timer Game is a commendable debut novel from a writer who knows how to write an entertaining, intelligent, and really good medical thriller.”
---Tim Davis, Book Loons

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; 1st edition (January 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031236833X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312368333
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,084,389 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Medical Thriller Written in the Da Vinci Code Style, February 9, 2008

By 

Thriller Lover (Las Vegas, Nevada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Timer Game (Grace Descanso, Book 1) (Hardcover)

I thought THE TIMER GAME was a decent read. This is a medical thriller with a lot of forensic elements, and it's written in the fast-paced style that may remind you a little of Dan Brown's novels.

The heroine of this novel is Grace Descansco, who is a former pediactric heart surgeon who dropped out of medicine due to a tragic event in her past (which is not revealed until late in the book). Grace has a lot of struggles to deal with: she works a ton of hours for the San Diego crime lab, she's trying to raise a five-year old daughter on her own, she has an immature mother who makes her life more difficult, and she is a recovering alcoholic.

Eventually, Grace's daughter gets kidnapped by a madman, and she must play an elaborate treasure hunt to save her. The last two thirds of this book is essentially about Grace racing against time to solve the clues, while at the same time uncovering the motives behind the madman's actions. Again, this book has a bit of a DA VINCI CODE vibe, with all the riddles and clues sprinkled throughout the story.

THE TIMER GAME is decent popcorn entertainment. I didn't find much of the plotline particularly credible, but it does build suspense in the second half. The novel starts pretty slowly, and you have to read one hundred pages of setup before the plot really gets moving. Grace is a likable enough protagonist, but I found much of the characterization in this novel kind of flat. The writing is solid and clear, although not very stylistic.

Overall, THE TIMER GAME is an entertaining enough diversion. If you like your books fast-paced and plot-driven, you might want to give this one a try.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully scary, January 18, 2008

By 

Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Timer Game (Grace Descanso, Book 1) (Hardcover)

Smith has been a playwright, and an essayist for National Public Radio. She lives in San Diego, California, the setting of The Timer Game. The book's web site had some innovative "webisodes" covering events that happened five years before the book begins, and it is unique way to get to know the characters and what has shaped them.

Grace Descanso works as a crime-scene technician in San Diego, California. She is a struggling single mother of five-year-old Katie. Her best friend is her AA sponsor, Jeanne. Grace had been a promising pediatric heart surgeon, when she suddenly quit medicine and went through a horrific struggle with alcohol. The event that triggered this change happened when she was working in a tiny clinic in Guatemala, over five years ago.

Grace is called to a crime scene on her day off. At the crime scene, a meth house with blood spatters, she follows a cop and another crime scene investigator out back. There she finds them with their throats slit-dead. The deranged murderer attacks her, and she grabs one of the fallen men's guns and kills him. Before she does, however he delivers a chilling message, "He's after you, Grace, the Spikeman. You better run." Grace is put on administrative leave.

She is celebrating Katie's fifth birthday, trying to keep her life normal, when odd things start happening. A package appears in the backyard. Who brought it? It has a bloody doll inside. Then Katie is taken from the upstairs bathroom, and Grace is forced to play "the timer game" to find her. This is a variation of the timer game she plays with her daughter, depositing clues around the house and using a timer to keep track of the time it takes to solve the clues. Only this timer game covers the city, using strangers to hold various packages for Grace if she solves the clues in time. She is not allowed to call the police, and the Spikeman seems to know her every move-he seems to know Grace very well.

Will she find Katie in time? What could she have done in the past to cause someone to hate her so much?

Armchair Interview says: This edge-of-the-chair thriller will keep you up until you finish it.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fantasticbook, January 23, 2011

By 

Jayme - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Timer Game (Grace Descanso, Book 1) (Hardcover)

I dont generally read books like this, but it was so interesting,and I live in sandiego, so it was fun to know the locations she talks about. I would recommend this to anyone. :)