They're the words that send horror into the heart of every parent of an adopted child: "We want her back."

In C.J. Box's heart-shredding new thriller, Three Weeks to Say Goodbye, the dreaded phrase comes when Jack and Melissa McGuane's daughter, Angelina, is 9 months old. The biological father, a teen whose demeanor ranges from subtly nasty to downright threatening, contends he wasn't properly notified of the adoption.

It's all a ruse, of course, and it'd be a fairly simple legal proceeding to declare the McGuanes the legal parents – if not for Angelina's biological grandfather, a federal judge whose influence throws the McGuanes into serious peril of losing their daughter.

Before I go much further here, full disclosure: I'm adopted, and this subject brings up strong feelings. The mere thought of having been yanked away from my adoptive parents is enough to send me into full-on sobs.

Then again, anyone who's looking for deep sociological discourse on parental rights won't find that in Three Weeks. This is pretty much a straight-up thriller, wrapped loosely around the emotional thread of adoption and what constitutes "family."

Readers will discern right away that birth dad Garrett is one extremely bad dude. The wannabe grandpa, Judge Moreland, seems all right at first, if a little too slick and phonily courteous. But when Melissa runs into his wife and learns that she doesn't even know about the baby, much less of Moreland's plans to bring her home, Jack and Melissa go into offense-as-defense mode.

They enlist the help of two of Jack's college buddies, Brian, a successful Denver businessman, and Cody, a crusty cop whose ability to play by the rules is seriously flawed. Bolstered by Brian's connections and money and Cody's undercover sorcery, they begin to poke holes in Moreland's seemingly airtight case.

When the suspense lets up enough to allow emotion to sneak in, Box gets it just right. At a crucial moment involving a member of Garrett's gang, narrator Jack muses, "I didn't really mind if he died. But could I sit there and watch him die? Yes."

The author also sneaks in some welcome black humor. When the McGuane group travels to Montana to enlist the aid of Cody's disreputable Uncle Jeter, they take a detour to visit Jack's parents. His mother is known for her weeknight dinner specialties.

"I really liked the cabbage rolls," Cody says. "Maybe next time we drive up here to hire a hit man we could come on Thursday."

The real mystery all along is why a middle-aged judge would be so desperate to bring an infant girl home to a wife who clearly doesn't want her. The resolution of that mystery, and of Three Weeks in general, will have many a reader shuddering, and keeping a much closer eye on their own children. Oh, and it's not what you're probably thinking. Close, but even worse than that.

By JOY TIPPING / The Dallas Morning News
jtipping@dallasnews.com