Jonas Peters, a worn-out veteran of the Riverside Police Department, finds his career thrown into disarray by the psychopath Zachary Marshall. Jonas interferes with Marshall's latest bank heist, and the resulting clash leaves his partner and a ten-year-old girl dead. After nearly melting down in front of the media and his team, Jonas is placed on administrative leave and sent on an Arizona vacation with his sister and her family.

But Marshall, personally insulted by Jonas' remarks to a newspaper, follows him with every intention of sending him to join his partner. What follows is a bloody back-and-forth game as each man tries to draw the other out, leaving bodies scattered across the Arizona suburbs and culminating in a car chase through the streets of Phoenix.

"Pursued" has all the elements necessary for a solid thriller: an officer with demons in his past, attractive women to distract him, affectionate/obstinate allies and an unredeemable villain with very distinct traits. The pace may seem a little too violent at times with 50-50 odds of anyone Jonas meets being killed by Marshall, but that rapid clip of deaths adds an additional depth of suspense as you wonder who will make it.

One offsetting factor of the story is the romance angle. Jonas has two romantic interests in a friend of his sister's and a tough female detective, but Beyer gives equal time and flirtation to each woman. By the time Jonas makes his decision, I felt less like a real connection was formed and more like he simply flipped a coin.