"Kelly's years as a political writer and intelligence correspondent covering wars, terrorism and nuclear powers have served her well, and she portrays James with authority in a smart, fun voice that will stir lust and envy among readers. The author leaves open a window on the final page that suggests a sequel, much to the reader's delight."
Description
A fast-paced international thriller in the vein of Janet Evanovich by former NPR anchor and correspondent Mary Louise Kelly, about a Pakistani terrorist’s nuclear threat to blow up the White House.
When Boston reporter Alexandra James is assigned to cover the death of Thom Carlyle, the son of a powerful Washington insider, she soon discovers the story is not as simple as it seems. The young man fell from the top of a Harvard bell tower, but did he jump…or was he pushed?
Intent on escaping the demons of her past, Alex knows how to outwork, outdrink, and outshop anyone else around. Now she is focused on what could be “the story of a lifetime”—chasing leads from Harvard Yard to the courtyards of Cambridge, England, from a clandestine rendezvous in London to the inside of a nuclear terrorist network. But when she goes to Washington, DC, for a key interview that promises to tie everything together, Alex the hunter becomes Alex the hunted. An assassin is dispatched…her laptop disappears…her phone is tapped…and she begins to grasp that Thom Carlyle may have been killed to hide a terrifying conspiracy within the White House itself.
Former NPR Intelligence correspondent Mary Louise Kelly has turned her own real-life reporting adventures into fiction with this stylish spy thriller.
Reviews
“Mystery and thriller readers will happily delve into this fast-paced story featuring a feisty protagonist whom one hopes will have further adventures.”
“Kelly has mastered the mental geographies of the journalist, the terrorist, and the spy: The competing ideals, the gritty reality, and the layers of wisdom or self-deception they employ in reconciling them. You won’t put this down.”
“Mary Louise Kelly blends the worlds she knows so well—Harvard, Cambridge, Washington, the news room and the American intelligence community--into a fast-paced thriller that is hard to put down. The atmosphere rings true on every page as she weaves a taut tale from a young man's apparent suicide to a terrorist attempt at the highest seat of American power.”