Gabrielle is sitting in an apartment in Manhattan, watching the clock. Her daughter has been kidnapped, she's shot and killed a man, and is trying to negotiate with the kidnapper. He wants the October List, and he wants money. The doorbell rings...
That is the end of Gabrielle's story, and the first chapter of the novel. The next chapter is the scene which came before, and what follows is what happened before that.
It was meant to be a harmless stag night prank. A few hours later four of his best friends are dead and Michael Harrison has disappeared. With only three days to the wedding, Detective Superintendent Grace - a man haunted by the shadow of his own missing wife - is contacted by Michael's beautiful, distraught fiancée, Ashley Harper. Grace discovers that the one man who ought to know Michael Harrison's whereabouts...