Molly's Moon

Pinnacle Award for Best Thriller, Spring 2015, Awarded by the National Association of Book Entrepreneurs
On a routine trip to Europe, widowed businessman Ethan Paxton learns of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon while landing in Amsterdam on September 11, 2001. Stuck in the Netherlands while fear grips at America's throat and the world is in chaos, he finds out his teenage daughter Molly has been abducted by terrorists in Mexico while she was on a school mission trip. With America's airports closed for who knows how long, he is left with few options.In desperation, Ethan remembers an old Air Force buddy, Jake Delgado - an ex-cop who's now a broken down, alcoholic private investigator. Tracking Jake to a sleazy bar on the outskirts of the Gas Lamp District of San Diego, Ethan hires him to look for Molly, with Ethan's son alongside. In a white-knuckle race against time, the frantic father finds his way to Mexico City, while his distraught but determined son and Jake turn over the dark underside of Baja, California, searching for the girl and her friends. Their journeys converge at the Tijuana border crossing on September 13, with the diabolical kidnapper and his prostitute companion in the crosshairs. But just knowing the solution isn't the same as executing it. Will the three have what it takes to outwit and outfight the terrorist to save the girls?Ron Parham's first novel, Molly's Moon, is exciting and entertaining. With the terror of 9/11 as its backdrop, the story of widowed American businessman Ethan Paxton's working trip to Europe takes harrowing turn after turn when he learns his teenage daughter has been kidnapped by Mexican sex-traffickers just outside Tijuana. Telling his story from multiple viewpoints, Parham literally shoots for the moon, and he doesn't miss his mark. - JB Hogan, author of The Apostate and Angels in the OzarksMove over Grisham, Parham's on his way. Patterson's got his Alex Cross, Lee Child has his Jack Reacher, and Ron Parham has Jake Delgado ... really an interesting character. - Trent Fewkes, retired IRS Agent