Tag, You're Dead
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
Six young people play a dangerous Game of Tag in public, chasing through the crowds, streets, and buildings of Chicago. This secret, one-of-a-kind, wildly expensive Game offers a macabre twist to the childhood version...if you get Tagged, you get Dead.
Three "Its" have their reasons for buying a place in the Game. Surgically enhanced Brandy is obsessed with destroying a naturally beautiful girl. Untalented Robert covets his target's position as superstar of the basketball team. Brainiac Charles craves a battle against an intellectual equal. Given their elite social status, they reject any possible downside to the contest. Each expects the satisfaction of killing their prey, then walking away.
Hand-picked innocents play as "Runners," under threat to their loved ones should they refuse to participate: lovely, small-town Laura; celebrated athlete Tyrese; and Amanda, gamer extraordinaire. Alone, hunted by their adversary, each feels a single hope...to survive.
Technological wizardry controls the Game. As soon as Runners receive the "Go" signal on smartwatches locked to their wrists, the Game rockets them through the city, from the El to Michigan Avenue to the Lincoln Park Zoo. There is no time to rest. Every thirty minutes the Runner's location is transmitted to the It, which steadily diminishes the Runner's chance of ever reaching Home Base alive.
The Game will not end until someone is Tagged, so the Runners must choose how to play. Will they accept death? Murder their Its? Or find a way to use individual strengths to stop the Game before anyone dies?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Six teenagers play a high-stakes game of tag through Chicago in this engrossing standalone from the pseudonymous Lane (Leave Tomorrow Behind and five other Stella Crown mysteries as Judy Clemens). Unattractive socialite Brandy Inkrott loathes naturally pretty, popular girls, so her wealthy parents gift her with the chance to kill Laura Wingfield, a stranger who's everything Brandy isn't. Robert Matthews, a politician's son, believes he'd be the star of his high school basketball team with Tyrese Broadstreet out of the way. Brilliant Charles Akida simply wants a challenge, but to convince equally astute Amanda Paniagua to take the game seriously, he has to appear to pose a lethal threat to her. The "Its" know tagging their "Runner" means committing murder, but they don't realize that if they fail, the game's mysterious referee has a twist in store for them and the hunters will become the hunted. Despite one-dimensional characters and a lack of development, readers will enjoy seeing how each Runner draws on his or her best qualities to try to survive the game.