The Worst Thing — Aaron Elkins

For Bryan Bennett, designing hostage negotiation programs is the perfect job -- as long as he doesn't deal directly with kidnappers or their victims. Intense nightmares of his own abduction and imprisonment as a small boy still plague him thirty-some years later, and claustrophobia prevents him from attempting to travel.

So when Bryan's boss asks him to fly to Reykjavik to teach his corporate-level kidnapping and extortion seminar, he initially refuses. But a CEO has specifically requested Bryan -- or no one else. Finally Bryan relents…

For decades he's treaded gingerly around his deepest terrors. Now, on this trip, Bryan's taken hostage again and must face his fears full-on. Will he realize that in this battle of will and nerve, he is his own greatest enemy? Or has this fight already been lost years ago?