One of the hundred books a year I read:

Receiving the message that her mother is dangerously ill, college student Darby heads out across the Rocky Mountains in a race to get home. A monstrous snow storm shuts down the road and forces her to overnight in a rest area with a group of strangers and, worse, no ability to communicate with the outside world.

At first, the people sharing the claustrophobic seem strange and eccentric, but things take a turn for the worst when Darby discovers a child locked in a dog cage. Who among the strangers would imprison a child? And who can be trusted to help Darby until outside help can arrive hours later?

The above happens in the first 20 pages of a book that never relents in pace. Considering the physical constraints of space (a building with two bathrooms hemmed in by a vicious storm that can kill anyone trying to escape and a handful of snow-covered cars) and small cast, the author keeps a cat-and-mouse game throughout.