Several percussive thuds reverberated from the front door to the offices of BradParksBooks.com.

Then the door burst open and Zach, the silly intern, stumbled in carrying a large wooden sculpture that depicted three perfectly round periods lined up in a row.

"Okay, people, listen here," he said, then held up the sculpture. "This is an ellipsis. As any shameless book promotion expert knows, it is the most important punctuation mark in the world of publishing. Today, we are going to learn how to employ the ellipsis, to embrace the ellipsis, to loooove the ellipsis. Any questions?"

He rested the sculpture on the conference table and patted it affectionately. Maggie, the clueless intern, stared at it with her head turned. Peter, the slothful intern, was amusing himself by repeatedly doodling "67" on a legal pad.

"Okay, good," Zach continued. "Now, for the uninitiated, the three dots of the ellipsis can accomplish several things. It can signal a brief pause . . . like this. But we'll be focusing on its more powerful and significant usage: To signal to the reader that words have been omitted from a quote."

"Zach, we know what an ellipsis is," said Sarah, the smart intern. "Why are you telling us this?"

"Skipping the backstory and getting right to the plot. I like it. Okay, Brad's new book The Flack has gotten great quotes from some of the leading prepublication book review outlets. But some of them may need to be, ahem, massaged a little."

Sarah frowned skeptically. "Massaged how?"

"Well, right now, Brad's Booklist review begins by saying, 'This blaze of a novel will likely strike readers as a spin--on amphetamines--of John Grisham's 1991 effort, The Firm.' And it ends by saying Brad tells the story with 'energetic prose so tightly controlled that readers will catch themselves asking for a break. Sweaty palms here, an explosion there, a quiet scene advances the plot. This is major work.'"

"Zach, that's a fabulous review. We don't need to—"

"It's not punchy enough," he insisted. "We're going to shorten it like this."

"It's The Firm . . . on amphetamines." —Booklist

Sarah shrugged. "Okay, sounds fine."

"Good. Next is Brad's Library Journal review. It actually doesn't need ellipses as you can see."

"A gripping tale that will entertain readers and make them question the difficult realities of immigration, labor struggles, and the fractured ways people communicate in the 21st century." —Library Journal

"This all sounds pretty standard so far," Sarah said. "Why all the big to-do about ellipses?"

"Well, there's still the matter of his Kirkus review," Zach said.

"What about it?"

"Don't worry. I've got it covered. What do you think of this."

"A . . . fabulous . . . dream . . . pregnant . . . with . . . increasingly . . . beautiful . . . humanity . . . in . . peril. Readers . . . will enjoy . . . it." —Kirkus Reviews

"There!" Zach said, patting his ellipsis sculpture again. "Not a word of the quote is inaccurate!"

Peter poked his head up and said, "The review was that bad, huh?"

"Let's be kind to Brad and call it 'mixed.'"

"I just have one question," Sarah said.

"Go."

"Are you trying to get the book delisted for false advertising?"

Zach's flexing of his artistic license aside, enthusiasm for The Flack, Brad's thrilling thirteenth novel, is building ahead of its February 3 release. It features Curt Hinton, a former newspaper reporter who—just like Brad—is forced by the demise of the industry to seek his fortunes elsewhere.

Angel Reddish, Curt's best friend from college, recruits him to a lucrative job at Balco, the Bay Area Logistics Company. The position includes lavish perks like a rental house in ritzy Marin County, California (also just like Brad) and the use of a free Rivian (very much unlike Brad, who drives a used Ford Fusion).

But then, on Curt's first day at his new job, he is shocked to discover Angel has been murdered. Curt's investigation soon leads him down a dangerous path, as he discovers that Balco is anything but the benevolent employer he believed it to be.

Esteemed New York Times bestselling author Julia Spencer-Fleming—long a favorite of the interns—says The Flack "opens with a bang and hurtles forward like a bullet . . . Murder, corruption, cover-ups—this Hitchcockian thriller kept me turning pages all night."

Best of all, because the rest of the interns are keeping an eye on things, The Flack hasn't been removed from any of the great places where you buy your favorite books.

At least not yet. But it may make sense to hurry up and preorder your copy today . . . before Zach gets back to work.

Yours . . . in Elision,

The BradParksBooks.com Interns

Coming February 3rd