There’s a particular kind of dread that begins on page one and never quite leaves. Gillian McAllister’s latest thriller, Caller Unknown, plants you in a remote Texan lodge with a British mother who has crossed an ocean to spend two weeks with her teenage daughter. When the daughter vanishes on the first morning, the silence of the desert becomes its own character, and so begins a story that asks a very uncomfortable question: how far would you go to get her back, and what would you become along the way? The Premise: A Phone, a Voice, an Impossible Choice Simone Seaborn lands in Fort Davis after a delayed flight to meet Lucy, her sharp-tongued, RADA-bound only child. They eat omelettes at midnight, joke about a tone-deaf singing teacher, and fall asleep in a cabin with a busted screen door. By morning, Lucy is gone. A burner flip phone hidden in the bedroom rings, and a distorted voice issues orders. Don’t tell the police. Bring nothing. Be prepared to do a deal. What follows in Caller …