'No Way Back' is suspenseful tale

“No Way Back” is the latest high-octane thriller from Andrew Gross, the best-selling author of “15 Seconds.” One woman's life is destroyed and another hides a secret from her past.

Wendy Gould has a fight with her husband. She waits in a bar for a girlfriend who doesn't show. Wendy flirts with a stranger and soon finds herself in his hotel room. Before things get hot and heavy, she realizes her mistake and runs into the bathroom. When she hears another voice in the room, she peeks out to see a man with a gun. Soon, two men are dead — and she's on the run.

Meanwhile, young nanny Lauritzia Velez has a secret that could prove deadly. She's on a shopping trip at a mall with her charges when a gunman tries to shoot them. A security guard kills the shooter before he can harm them, but Velez realizes she has to flee if she wants the family to survive.

Gross is a master of suspense, and “No Way Back” will put him on the best-seller lists once again. However, one weakness in the story is that both women need men to help them survive. It's too bad neither character comes across as strong enough to do it without help.