The book continues the story started in Vengeance Road, which follows Buffalo, N.Y.-based crime reporter Jack Gannon. In the first installment, Gannon is scrutinizing the death of a former nursing student. His investigation leads to the disappearance of her friend and their connection to a local detective with a shady past.
While dirty cops with dark secrets play a prominent role in the first Gannon book, the second takes the protagonist – and readers – on a deadly international assignment.
Described by the New York Times as a “headlong rush toward Armageddon,” The Panic Zone sees an anguished mother and relentless reporter pursue the perfect killer.
A combination of factors is at play in Mofina’s latest novel as experts race against time. Gannon is asked to investigate a bombing at a Rio de Janeiro café that killed 10 people, including two journalists. A mother is thrown clear of a devastating car crash and, while dazed, is sure she sees a figure pull her infant son from the flames.
Meanwhile, doctors are desperately trying to identify a mysterious virus responsible for the agonizing death of passengers aboard a Caribbean cruise.
A former journalist and award-winning author of several thrillers, Mofina said many seeds for his stories come from his experiences. His reporting put him face-to-face with murderers on death row in Montana and Texas. He covered a horrific serial-killing case in California and an armored car-heist in Las Vegas.
He has reported from the Caribbean, Africa and Kuwait’s border with Iraq and his true-crime articles have appeared in the New York Times, Marie Claire and Reader’s Digest. “That tension you face as a reporter; you’re always thrown into situations where you have to be a human sponge and pick up everything,” Mofina told the Orléans Star when Vengeance Road came out.
From those seeds of experience he uses his creativity to build up something real. “That’s the fun part,” Mofina added.
Since The Panic Zone came out Thursday, July 1, the Chapel Hill resident is preparing to host some local book signings. The first will be held on July 14 from 7-8:30 p.m. at the Book Stop at 1224 Place d’Orléans Dr. He will also be at the Rideau Street Chapters from 7-8:30 p.m. on July 15. Those with a Costco membership can catch the author at the Cyrville Road location on July 18 from 2:30-4 p.m.
