Sign up for our newsletters to receive our Most Anticipated Books of 2025!

Summary and Reviews of Panic by Jeff Abbott

Panic by Jeff Abbott

Panic

by Jeff Abbott
  • Critics' Consensus (3):
  • Readers' Rating (5):
  • First Published:
  • Aug 1, 2005, 304 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Aug 2006, 416 pages
  • Rate this book

About This Book

Book Summary

An emotionally charged, heart-stopping thriller about one man's determination to take back his stolen life.

What if everything in your life was a lie?

Things are going well for 24 year-old Evan Casher: his career as a documentary filmmaker is booming and his relationship with his new girlfriend, Carrie, couldn't be better. After an urgent phone call from his mother, he makes an unexpected trip home to Austin. Then the unthinkable happens. He arrives to find his mother brutally murdered, and narrowly escapes an attempt on his own life. Spirited away from the scene by an enigmatic mercenary with an agenda of his own, Evan is confronted with a shocking fact: his entire life has been little more than a carefully constructed lie.

Pursued by a powerful, ruthless organization of killers who will stop at nothing to keep old secrets buried, Evan's only hope for survival is to uncover the truth about his family...and his own past. With his mother's attackers fast on his heels and with no one to trust—not the authorities, his father, nor the woman he loves—his perilous search takes him from the Texas Hill Country to New Orleans, to London, and to Miami. Full of unforgettable characters and jolting plot twists, Panic is an emotionally charged, heart-stopping thriller about one man's determination to take back his stolen life.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $50 for 12 months or $18 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

Booklist - David Wright
Starred Review. Those who disparage page-turners seldom appreciate what it takes to pull off a really good one, such as Abbott's engrossing hardcover debut, which follows a string of hardboiled paperback originals.

Library Journal - Jeff Ayers
Abbott's writing style evokes unease from the start, which makes for a tense and intriguing read. Readers should indeed panic. Recommended for all fiction collections.

Publishers Weekly
Abbott has fashioned another burst of white-knuckled suspense that's extremely hard to put down.

Author Blurb Harlan Coben
A sleek, smart thriller that combines a family tragedy, international intrigue, and the redemptive power of love into one of this year's best books. There is no question: Jeff Abbott is the new name in suspense.

Author Blurb Jan Burke
Jeff Abbott has all the ingredients of high suspense in Panic: an ordinary man whose everyday life changes within minutes into an unrecognizable landscape, a place where he is in constant danger and can find no easy way out. Be prepared to stay up all night.

Author Blurb Laura Lippman
A superb story, a sterling example of why we love stories about ordinary men thrust into extraordinary circumstances. Don't even try to anticipate the twists and turns in this intelligent thriller -- just hold on tight and remember to breathe.

Author Blurb Lee Child
Panic is Jeff Abbott's best novel yet... an instant classic immediately full of questions--who, what, why, how--that have answers you won't see coming.

Author Blurb Michael Connelly
Panic is a ride down the roaring rapids. Jeff Abbott has put together a hell of a page turner.

Author Blurb Tony Hillerman
Panic is what a reader enjoys when a really talented writer like Jeff Abbott comes up with a fresh and gripping plot. It's even better than his Cut and Run.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $50 for 12 months or $18 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Beyond the Book



Jeff Abbott is a three-time nominee for the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Allan Poe Award and a two-time nominee for the Anthony Award, given at Bouchercon (aka the World Mystery Conference.) In fact, all of his Whit Mosley suspense novels have been nominated for major writing awards.

He was born in Dallas and grew up in Austin and Dallas. He graduated from Rice University with a degree in History and English, and worked as a creative director at an advertising agency before ...

This "beyond the book" feature is available to non-members for a limited time. Join today for full access.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $50 for 12 months or $18 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked Panic, try these:

We have 5 read-alikes for Panic, but non-members are limited to two results. To see the complete list of this book's read-alikes, you need to be a member.
More books by Jeff Abbott
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $50 for 12 months or $18 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

BookBrowse Book Club

  • Book Jacket
    The Frozen River
    by Ariel Lawhon
    From the bestselling author of I Was Anastasia comes a historical mystery inspired by 18th-century midwife Martha Ballard, who investigates a shocking murder.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Three Days in June
    by Anne Tyler

    A new Anne Tyler novel destined to be an instant classic: a socially awkward mother of the bride navigates the days before and after her daughter's wedding.

  • Book Jacket

    Harlem Rhapsody
    by Victoria Christopher Murray

    The extraordinary story of the woman who ignited the Harlem Renaissance.

  • Book Jacket

    Beast of the North Woods
    by Annelise Ryan

    When a local fisherman is mauled to death, it seems like the only possible cause is a mythical creature.

Who Said...

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world...

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

D to T N

and be entered to win..