Overview
Former CIA officer Alex Matthews finds himself caught in a dangerous investigation where politics and crime are two sides of the same coin, in the latest espionage thriller by Paul Vidich.
Washington, DC. It's the month before the presidential election, with polls showing a dead heat, and former CIA Moscow Station Chief Alex Matthews has been brought into the White House by an old friend to help with the reelection effort. The question is why? The president doesn't like him, and he doesn't fit on the White House team of hard-charging idealogues. In time, it becomes clear to Matthews that he’s been recruited for his Russian connections: Mikhail Sorkin, his former Moscow lawyer who is close to the Kremlin, and his last remaining Russian asset, code-named LAMB, who warned of Russian interference in the previous presidential election.
Matthews keeps his head down and tries to not get involved in the vicious infighting of a polarized country, but events begin to spiral out of his control at a Republican fundraiser. He spots Irina, a Russian woman he is dating, get in the hotel elevator with a senior White House colleague and a second Russian woman. Seeing that Irina is upset, he follows them to a fifth-floor suite where he overhears a violent confrontation. He leaves, but outside he comes upon bystanders crowded around a woman’s naked body, dead on the sidewalk. It's the woman who was with Irina; she has fallen or been pushed from a hotel window.
Speculation circulates that the dead woman worked on the campaign but reported to Moscow. With the ensuing PR storm threatening the reelection efforts, the deputy chief of staff enlists Matthews to locate two suspects seen in hotel surveillance video before the police do—Irina and a fleeing man. Matthews recognizes himself in the video and turns from witness to suspect—from hunter to hunted. The investigation is a dangerous maze where politics and crime are two sides of the same coin. The trick, he knows, is to stay one step ahead. But what if the enemy has been waiting for him all along?
A timely, gripping political thriller by an acclaimed master of the genre.
Washington, DC. It's the month before the presidential election, with polls showing a dead heat, and former CIA Moscow Station Chief Alex Matthews has been brought into the White House by an old friend to help with the reelection effort. The question is why? The president doesn't like him, and he doesn't fit on the White House team of hard-charging idealogues. In time, it becomes clear to Matthews that he’s been recruited for his Russian connections: Mikhail Sorkin, his former Moscow lawyer who is close to the Kremlin, and his last remaining Russian asset, code-named LAMB, who warned of Russian interference in the previous presidential election.
Matthews keeps his head down and tries to not get involved in the vicious infighting of a polarized country, but events begin to spiral out of his control at a Republican fundraiser. He spots Irina, a Russian woman he is dating, get in the hotel elevator with a senior White House colleague and a second Russian woman. Seeing that Irina is upset, he follows them to a fifth-floor suite where he overhears a violent confrontation. He leaves, but outside he comes upon bystanders crowded around a woman’s naked body, dead on the sidewalk. It's the woman who was with Irina; she has fallen or been pushed from a hotel window.
Speculation circulates that the dead woman worked on the campaign but reported to Moscow. With the ensuing PR storm threatening the reelection efforts, the deputy chief of staff enlists Matthews to locate two suspects seen in hotel surveillance video before the police do—Irina and a fleeing man. Matthews recognizes himself in the video and turns from witness to suspect—from hunter to hunted. The investigation is a dangerous maze where politics and crime are two sides of the same coin. The trick, he knows, is to stay one step ahead. But what if the enemy has been waiting for him all along?
A timely, gripping political thriller by an acclaimed master of the genre.
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