Format: 392 pages, Hardcover
Release Date: January 27, 2026
Publisher: Hanover Square Press
Source: Publisher
Genre: Thriller, Suspense
Publisher: Hanover Square Press
Source: Publisher
Genre: Thriller, Suspense
Allison Brennan returns to her bestselling series with an edge-of-your-seat thriller that thrusts Quinn and Costa into the crosshairs of a sadistic serial killer.
Three newlywed couples have disappeared from an exclusive resort in Florida, only to turn up dead soon after. With the location and the similarities between the female victims as their only leads, it’s up to the FBI Mobile Response Team to catch a serial killer before anyone else ends up dead. And they have the perfect bait—Detective Kara Quinn, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the targeted women.
Undercover as newlyweds pretending to enjoy their honeymoon, Kara and FBI Agent Matt Costa set a flawless trap. When their plan works and they arrest the predator, Matt sends the rest of the team home so he and Kara can have the weekend for some much-needed R&R. But on Monday morning, the couple doesn’t show up to work, and the MRT learns they never checked out of their hotel.
As their team tries to find them, Matt and Kara learn the truth—the killer wasn’t acting alone. He had a partner who succeeded where he failed. Kidnapped and forced into a twisted escape room, they need to find a way out, because if they don’t escape, they’ll die.
Three newlywed couples have disappeared from an exclusive resort in Florida, only to turn up dead soon after. With the location and the similarities between the female victims as their only leads, it’s up to the FBI Mobile Response Team to catch a serial killer before anyone else ends up dead. And they have the perfect bait—Detective Kara Quinn, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the targeted women.
Undercover as newlyweds pretending to enjoy their honeymoon, Kara and FBI Agent Matt Costa set a flawless trap. When their plan works and they arrest the predator, Matt sends the rest of the team home so he and Kara can have the weekend for some much-needed R&R. But on Monday morning, the couple doesn’t show up to work, and the MRT learns they never checked out of their hotel.
As their team tries to find them, Matt and Kara learn the truth—the killer wasn’t acting alone. He had a partner who succeeded where he failed. Kidnapped and forced into a twisted escape room, they need to find a way out, because if they don’t escape, they’ll die.
Make It Out Alive is the 7th installment in author Allison Brennan's Quinn and Costa series. Brennan continues the adventures of LAPD Detective Kara Quinn (on extended assignment) and FBI Special Agent Matt Costa, leader of the Mobile Response Team (MRT). The team travels to under-resourced jurisdictions to tackle complex cases. This entry stands out for putting the central couple directly in mortal danger rather than primarily investigating from the outside. Three newlywed couples vanish from an exclusive Florida resort and later turn up dead.
The female victims share physical similarities. The MRT zeroes in on the location and pattern. Kara, who resembles the targeted women, and Matt go undercover as honeymooners to lure the killer. Their trap succeeds, and they arrest a suspect. Matt sends the rest of the team home so the pair can enjoy a short break. When they fail to report for work on Monday and never check out of their hotel, the team realizes something has gone badly wrong. The killer was not acting alone.
Kara and Matt awaken trapped in a deadly, puzzle-like environment—described in promotional materials and reviews as a twisted escape-room scenario—where survival depends on navigating traps while the rest of the MRT races to locate them and identify the accomplice. The narrative runs on parallel tracks: the couple’s desperate efforts to stay alive and support each other, and the team’s investigation, which involves reexamining evidence, interviewing people connected to the resort, and grappling with the implications of a flawed capture.
Brennan structures the book as a classic race-against-the-clock thriller with three interwoven threads: the protagonists’ captivity and attempts to escape a booby-trapped location, the MRT’s methodical search and discovery process, and background on the killers. Short chapters and frequent perspective shifts keep the momentum high. Kara and Matt remain the emotional core. Their established romantic relationship is tested under extreme pressure; they must rely on each other not only for practical survival but for emotional resilience.
Supporting MRT members (including profiler Dr. Catherine Jones, Michael Harris, Ryder Kim, Sloane Wagner, and others) get meaningful page time. The team’s worry, guilt, and determination humanize the professionals; several reviewers note that seeing them humbled and emotionally affected adds depth. Villains receive development that makes their motives and partnership credible and unsettling rather than purely cartoonish. One common observation is that the expanding ensemble sometimes means individual secondary characters receive less spotlight than in earlier books.
Make It Out Alive ranks among the stronger and more intense entries in the Quinn & Costa series for many fans. It successfully raises personal stakes for the central couple while delivering the procedural teamwork and serial-killer hunt that define the books. Brennan’s experience shows in the competent plotting and ability to sustain tension across parallel storylines. If you enjoy FBI/police procedurals with romantic elements, high-stakes survival scenarios, and series with recurring teams (think fans of similar mobile-unit or paired-investigator thrillers).
If you like the earlier Quinn & Costa books, this one should satisfy; if you’re new, it works reasonably well on its own but benefits from starting earlier in the series for fuller emotional payoff. Once again, my major problem with this story is Catherine. Catherine has had a major issue with Kara for a long time now, and this time, her judgment in determining who the killer might be actually puts Kara in harm's way. This isn't the first time Catherine has let her personal feelings get in the way.
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