The ascent / Adam Plantinga.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

When a high security prison fails, a down-on-his luck cop and the governor's daughter are going to have to team up if they're going to escape in this "jaw-dropping, authentic, and absolutely gripping" (Harlan Coben, #1 New York Times bestselling author) debut USA Today bestselling thriller from Adam Plantinga, whose first nonfiction book Lee Child praised as "truly excellent."



Kurt Argento, an ex-Detroit street cop who can't let injustice go--and who has the fighting skills to back up his idealism.

If he sees a young girl being dragged into an alley, he's going to rescue her and cause some damage.

When he does just that in a small corrupt Missouri town, he's brutally beaten and thrown into a maximum-security prison.

Julie Wakefield, a grad student who happens to be the governor's daughter, is about to take a tour of the prison. But when a malfunction in the security system releases a horde of prisoners, a fierce struggle for survival ensues.



Argento must help a small band of staff and civilians, including Julie and her two state trooper handlers, make their way from the bottom floor to the roof to safety.

All that stands in their way are six floors of the most dangerous convicts in Missouri.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

The knockout first novel from San Francisco police sergeant Plantinga (Police Craft) unfolds during a deadly breach at a maximum-security prison. Kurt Argento is a former Detroit cop driving cross country to see the Pacific Ocean when he's mistakenly arrested in a Missouri town and, due to a plumbing issue at the local jail and the Fourth of July preceding his court date, held over the long weekend in a nearby maximum-security facility. Shortly after he arrives, the prison's security system crashes during a visit from the governor's daughter, Julie Wakefield, and all inmates are released from their cells. Always a cop, Argento leads a small team of prison staff and accompanying civilians in guiding Julie up six floors of bloody chaos to their potential rescue on the roof. Plantinga maintains a breakneck pace from start to finish, with end-of-chapter cliffhangers and a devilish narrative structure in which each floor of the prison poses a different and more harrowing threat than the last. Along the way, the tension Plantinga generates between Argento's Jack Reacher--level self-confidence and criminology major Julie's more cerebral worldview exerts an irresistible pull. Once readers catch their breath, they'll be clamoring for more from this rising star. Agent: Caitlin Blasdell, Liza Dawson Assoc. (Jan.)

Kirkus Book Review

An action-packed, cinema-ready debut thriller. Kurt Argento is an ex-cop from Detroit with a stubborn, uncompromising sense of justice and formidable street-fighting skills. Having lost his beloved wife and--see "stubborn, uncompromising" above--recently his job, he heads south and west in his pickup, alone in the world but for his dog. When, at a small-town carnival in Missouri, he sees a young girl enticed into trouble by a pedophile, he intervenes, only to end up, when the perpetrator turns out to be the corrupt sheriff's brother, beaten and in custody. Because of overflow in the local jail, Kurt--who's given a false name and hasn't mentioned being ex-police--is moved to a nearby for-profit maximum-security prison. As he's booked in, all hell breaks loose: Either by glitch or by plan, the computerized lock system goes haywire, unlocking about half of the doors, and the guards--a skeleton crew because it's July 4--quickly either seek shelter or are overwhelmed. After saving a nurse from sexual assault, Kurt encounters a private tour group consisting of a terrified assistant warden, two people who are clearly security officers, and a young woman who turns out to be the governor's daughter, a graduate student doing a discreet site visit for research. They realize that their only hope of escape, in the short time before the whole computer system fails and every door springs open, is to make their way up six floors, each filled with more fearsome inmates than the last, to the roof. If this sounds formulaic, it is; if it sounds like a recipe for steadily escalating mayhem, it is; if you think you know where it's headed, you do. But it's also pulse-pounding, cleverly plotted, fast-paced, expertly made entertainment. A meat-and-potatoes thriller, sure--but they're delicious meat and potatoes. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Adam Plantinga's first book, 400 Things Cops Know , was nominated for an Agatha Award and won the 2015 Silver Falchion award for best nonfiction crime reference. It was hailed as "truly excellent" by author Lee Child and deemed "the new Bible for crime writers" by The Wall Street Journal . His second book, also nonfiction, is Police Craft . Plantinga began his career in law enforcement in 2001 as a Milwaukee police officer. He is currently a sergeant with the San Francisco Police Department assigned to street patrol. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, daughters, and Chow Chow named Ziggy. The Ascent is his debut novel.