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Sign up todayExtreme Vetting
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Learn moreAn immigration lawyer fights to keep her client from being deported and losing his family. But those who want him gone will stop at nothing—including murder.
Seattle, Washington, 2019. Attorney and single mom Laura Holban is an immigrant herself, guiding clients through a Kafkaesque system of ever-changing rules, where overworked judges make life-shattering decisions in minutes. Laura’s newest client is Emilio Ramirez, who was arrested in front of his sons at their high school and thrown in detention.
When Laura files for Emilio’s asylum, the world turns upside down. False criminal charges prevent his release, someone is following his family, and an ICE prosecutor threatens to revoke Laura’s US citizenship. None of it makes sense—until she uncovers a deadly conspiracy involving ICE, stolen data, and human trafficking.
Now the man at the center of it all is coming after Laura and Emilio, who must find a way to survive—and keep their families safe.
Roxana Arama is a Romanian American author with a master of fine arts in creative writing from Goddard College. She studied computer science in Bucharest, Romania, and moved to the United States to work in software development. Her short stories and essays have been published in several literary magazines. Extreme Vetting is her first novel. She lives in Seattle, Washington, with her family. Learn more at roxanaarama.com
Reviews
Arama’s taut narrative brims with tension and indelible characters. ( . . . ) A remarkable cast sparks this incisive, riveting tale of intolerance.
— Kirkus Reviews
With an empathetic hand, Roxana Arama brings characters to life by weaving the alarming injustice of the immigrant struggle into a gritty, page-turning plot. A bold, thrilling story.
— Karen Hugg, author of The Forgetting Flower and The Dark Petals of Provence
A genuinely gripping read. Roxana Arama has written a dynamic thriller that balances gritty realism with a keen sensitivity to the experiences of displacement, acculturation, and the human need for connection and belonging.
— Elizabeth Liang, award-winning creator of Alien Citizen: An Earth Odyssey
Fast-paced and chilling from the moment you crack open the cover, you won’t be able to put Extreme Vetting down. Roxana Arama’s deep knowledge of the immigration system and all its complexities gives this thriller a unique and timely presence in the genre.
— Suzy Vitello, author of Faultland
Extreme Vetting was unlike any thriller I have ever read; Arama kept me on my toes the entire novel, eager to know what the future holds for Emilio and his family. I appreciated how knowledgeable Arama was about the immigration process and her sensitivity to the struggles and major obstacles these peoples face. Truly a timely book, this novel can be an eye-opener to the violence and aggression so many immigrants are fleeing from.
— Theresa Kadair, Seattle Book Review
Extreme Vetting is an excellent legal thriller with a pace that is sure to make readers never want to put the book down until the last page is turned. ( . . . ) Extreme Vetting has proven to be an excellent debut for Roxana Arama, and it will be exciting to see where her literary career goes next.
— Michael Costanzo, founder of City on the Moon
Roxana Arama infuses her compelling debut novel with a realism and depth that carries the reader into a deeper and greater understanding of her story in Extreme Vetting: A Thriller. As an immigrant herself, she brings a marvelously nuanced journey that leaves readers quickly turning to the next page to continue their storytelling adventure.
— John Busbee, host of The Culture Buzz
Roxana, you have written a thriller that cuts very close to the truth for me. Living in the border state of Arizona, we hear nightmare stories all the time, and I want to thank you for bringing this issue to life in a very reader-friendly novel.
— Linda Thompson, host of The Authors Show
I’m not a frequent reader of thrillers, but I couldn’t turn away from this one. ( . . . ) It’s as well-versed in the intricacies of the legal system as it is in the tropes of suspense fiction, and it’s a perfect snapshot of our city when it’s snowbound.
— James Crossley, owner of Madison Books, 2022 finalist for Publishers Weekly’s Bookstore of the Year Award
A riveting thriller of suspense, politics, and one of the major social issues of our day, "Extreme Vetting" by author Roxana Arama is all the more impressive when considering that it is her debut as a novelist. "Extreme Vetting" is a deftly crafted novel that is especially and unreservedly recommended for community library Contemporary Fiction collections. (…) [T]he stuff of which movies are made!
—Midwest Book Review
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