Cutout — Max Allan Collins

A young woman from the Midwest, recipient of an unexpected college scholarship, is recruited into a lucrative courier job that shuttles her from Manhattan to Washington, DC. There’s a slight drawback: the previous two “cutouts” died by violence.Sierra Kane—who has bounced from one foster family to another—faces an uncertain future when she receives an unapplied-for scholarship to Barnard College specifically designed for orphans whose academic records are merely above average. A second unexpected boon comes her way when another recipient of that somewhat mysterious scholarship offers her a part-time courier job.Soon Sierra is caught up in a whirl of espionage and murder, with a new boyfriend who may or may not be part of a plot, a college mentor with a possible agenda of her own, and an FBI agent who rebuffs Sierra’s plea for help.It’s a classic story of a small-town girl caught up in an overwhelming big-city world; but Sierra Kane is a young woman whose curiosity and determination will lead her to the truth … and into more than one deadly confrontation.Max Allan Collins and Barbara Collins, the married writing team behind Bombshell and Regeneration, and whose Antiques mystery series is a long-running fan favorite under the name Barbara Allan (of which Antiques Liquidation and Antiques Foe are also read by Gabrielle de Cuir)—have crafted a novella that is at once as timeless as a fairy tale and as modern as a headline.