Skip to main content

Editorial Content for 15th Affair

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Joe Hartlaub

May 2016 seems to be the month for pivotal novels in long-running series. This is true of 15th AFFAIR, the latest installment in the Women’s Murder Club series by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro. It is difficult to believe that San Francisco Police Department homicide detective Lindsay Boxer and her friends have been clipping along for 15 years, yet the numbered titles of the installments of this must-read series tell me that is so. Read More

Teaser

Lindsay Boxer thinks she has found domestic bliss. But when an alluring blonde woman with links to the CIA disappears from the scene of a brutal murder at a luxury hotel, Lindsay's life begins to unravel. Before she can track down the woman for questioning, a plane crash plunges San Francisco into chaos and Lindsay's husband Joe vanishes. The deeper she digs, the more Lindsay suspects that Joe shares a secret past with the mystery blonde. Thrown into a tailspin and questioning everything she thought she knew, Lindsay turns to the Women's Murder Club for help as she tries to uncover the truth.

Promo

Lindsay Boxer thinks she has found domestic bliss. But when an alluring blonde woman with links to the CIA disappears from the scene of a brutal murder at a luxury hotel, Lindsay's life begins to unravel. Before she can track down the woman for questioning, a plane crash plunges San Francisco into chaos and Lindsay's husband Joe vanishes. The deeper she digs, the more Lindsay suspects that Joe shares a secret past with the mystery blonde. Thrown into a tailspin and questioning everything she thought she knew, Lindsay turns to the Women's Murder Club for help as she tries to uncover the truth.

About the Book

Detective Lindsay Boxer chases an elusive suspect...her husband.

As she settles into motherhood and a happy marriage, Lindsay Boxer thinks she has found domestic bliss. But when a beautiful, alluring blonde woman with links to the CIA disappears from the scene of a brutal murder at a downtown luxury hotel, Lindsay's life begins to unravel. Before she can track down the woman for questioning, a plane crash plunges San Francisco into chaos and Lindsay's husband Joe vanishes. The deeper she digs, the more Lindsay suspects that Joe shares a secret past with the mystery blonde. Thrown into a tailspin and questioning everything she thought she knew, Lindsay turns to the Women's Murder Club for help as she tries to uncover the truth.

Filled with pulse-pounding international intrigue, 15th AFFAIR proves that all is fair in love, war and espionage.

Audiobook available, read by January LaVoy

Editorial Content for Robert B. Parker's Slow Burn: A Spenser Novel

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Joe Hartlaub

SLOW BURN is a pivotal novel in the Spenser canon. Creator Robert B. Parker knew how to walk a very precise fine line between growing the character and keeping him true to himself, a (rare) talent that Ace Atkins, who has earned the reins and spurs to continue the series, has in spades as well. Some of the changes are subtle, and we’ll discuss those in a moment. Others (one comes to mind in particular) impact like a sledgehammer, and I won’t give them away. Still others are left to play out in a book or two, but the hints, and thunders, portend changes for the series. Read More

Teaser

The fire at a boarded-up Catholic church killed three firefighters who were trapped in the inferno. A year later, there are still no answers about how the deadly fire started. Boston firefighter Jack McGee, who lost his best friend in the blaze, suspects arson. McGee is convinced that department investigators aren’t sufficiently connected to the city’s lowlifes to get a handle on who's behind the blaze, so he takes the case to Spenser. Spenser quickly learns that the fire might be linked to a rash of new arsons spreading through the city, burning faster and hotter every night.

Promo

The fire at a boarded-up Catholic church killed three firefighters who were trapped in the inferno. A year later, there are still no answers about how the deadly fire started. Boston firefighter Jack McGee, who lost his best friend in the blaze, suspects arson. McGee is convinced that department investigators aren’t sufficiently connected to the city’s lowlifes to get a handle on who's behind the blaze, so he takes the case to Spenser. Spenser quickly learns that the fire might be linked to a rash of new arsons spreading through the city, burning faster and hotter every night.

About the Book

Boston PI Spenser faces a hot case and a personal crisis in the latest adventure in the iconic New York Times bestselling series from author Ace Atkins.
 
The fire at a boarded-up Catholic church raged hot and fast, lighting up Boston’s South End and killing three firefighters who were trapped in the inferno. A year later, as the city prepares to honor their sacrifice, there are still no answers about how the deadly fire started. Most at the department believe it was just a simple accident: faulty wiring in a century-old building. But Boston firefighter Jack McGee, who lost his best friend in the blaze, suspects arson.

McGee is convinced department investigators aren’t sufficiently connected to the city’s lowlifes to get a handle on who's behind the blaze --- so he takes the case to Spenser. Spenser quickly learns not only that McGee might be right, but that the fire might be linked to a rash of new arsons, spreading through the city, burning faster and hotter every night. Spenser follows the trail of fires to Boston’s underworld, bringing him, his trusted ally Hawk and his apprentice Sixkill toe-to-toe with a dangerous new enemy who wants Spenser dead, and doesn’t play by the city’s old rules. Spenser has to find the firebug before he kills again --- and stay alive himself.

Audiobook available, read by Joe Mantegna

Editorial Content for War Hawk: A Tucker Wayne Novel

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

In THE KILL SWITCH, James Rollins and Grant Blackwood introduced readers to the unique team of Tucker Wayne and Kane. Tucker is a former Army Ranger and sometime colleague of the Sigma Force team, and his partner Kane is a skilled military dog.

Tucker and his K-9 buddy are facing their most difficult situation yet in WAR HAWK. Before the action is over, they will be forced to confront what it means to be human or canine in modern warfare and recognize the non-living forces that threaten to permanently change the present and future state of military conflict. Read More

Teaser

Tucker Wayne’s past and his present collide when a former army colleague comes to him for help. She’s on the run from brutal assassins hunting her and her son. To keep them safe, Tucker must discover who killed a brilliant young idealist --- a crime that leads back to the most powerful figures in the U.S. government. From the haunted ruins of a plantation in the deep South to the beachheads of a savage civil war in Trinidad, Tucker and Kane must discover the truth behind a mystery that leads back to World War II, to a true event that is even now changing the world…and will redefine what it means to be human.

Promo

Tucker Wayne’s past and his present collide when a former army colleague comes to him for help. She’s on the run from brutal assassins hunting her and her son. To keep them safe, Tucker must discover who killed a brilliant young idealist --- a crime that leads back to the most powerful figures in the U.S. government. From the haunted ruins of a plantation in the deep South to the beachheads of a savage civil war in Trinidad, Tucker and Kane must discover the truth behind a mystery that leads back to World War II, to a true event that is even now changing the world…and will redefine what it means to be human.

About the Book

Former Army Ranger Tucker Wayne and his war dog Kane are thrust into a global conspiracy that threatens to shake the foundations of American democracy in this second exciting Sigma Force spinoff adventure from New York Times bestselling authors James Rollins and Grant Blackwood.

Tucker Wayne’s past and his present collide when a former army colleague comes to him for help. She’s on the run from brutal assassins hunting her and her son. To keep them safe, Tucker must discover who killed a brilliant young idealist --- a crime that leads back to the most powerful figures in the U.S. government.

From the haunted ruins of a plantation in the deep South to the beachheads of a savage civil war in Trinidad, Tucker and Kane must discover the truth behind a mystery that leads back to World War II, to a true event that is even now changing the world...and will redefine what it means to be human.

With no one to trust, they will be forced to break the law, expose national secrets, and risk everything to stop a madman determined to control the future of modern warfare for his own diabolical ends. But can Tucker and Kane withstand a force so indomitable that it threatens our very future?

Audiobook available, performed by Scott Aiello

Editorial Content for Her Again: Becoming Meryl Streep

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Christine M. Irvin

New Yorker contributor Michael Schulman takes readers on a journey through a decade that shaped Meryl Streep's career: the beginning of the ’70s when she graduated from high school, where she was the homecoming queen; to her enrollment at the Yale School of Drama, where she survived four years of grueling training; to the beginning of the ’80s at the Academy Awards when she won her first Oscar. Read More

Teaser

In HER AGAIN, an intimate look at the artistic coming-of-age of the greatest actress of her generation, New Yorker contributor Michael Schulman brings into focus Meryl Streep’s heady rise to stardom on the New York stage; her passionate, tragically short-lived love affair with fellow actor John Cazale; her marriage to sculptor Don Gummer; and her evolution as a young woman of the 1970s wrestling with changing ideas of feminism, marriage, love and sacrifice.

Promo

In HER AGAIN, an intimate look at the artistic coming-of-age of the greatest actress of her generation, New Yorker contributor Michael Schulman brings into focus Meryl Streep’s heady rise to stardom on the New York stage; her passionate, tragically short-lived love affair with fellow actor John Cazale; her marriage to sculptor Don Gummer; and her evolution as a young woman of the 1970s wrestling with changing ideas of feminism, marriage, love and sacrifice.

About the Book

A portrait of a woman, an era and a profession: the first thoroughly researched biography of Meryl Streep --- the “Iron Lady” of acting, nominated for 19 Oscars and winner of three --- that explores her beginnings as a young woman of the 1970s grappling with love, feminism and her astonishing talent.

In 1975 Meryl Streep, a promising young graduate of the Yale School of Drama, was finding her place in the New York theater scene. Burning with talent and ambition, she was like dozens of aspiring actors of the time --- a twenty-something beauty who rode her bike everywhere, kept a diary, napped before performances and stayed out late “talking about acting with actors in actors’ bars.” Yet Meryl stood apart from her peers. In her first season in New York, she won attention-getting parts in back-to-back Broadway plays, a Tony Award nomination and two roles in Shakespeare in the Park productions. Even then, people said, “Her. Again.”

HER AGAIN is an intimate look at the artistic coming-of-age of the greatest actress of her generation, from the homecoming float at her suburban New Jersey high school, through her early days on the stage at Vassar College and the Yale School of Drama during its golden years, to her star-making roles in The Deer Hunter, Manhattan and Kramer vs. Kramer. New Yorker contributor Michael Schulman brings into focus Meryl’s heady rise to stardom on the New York stage; her passionate, tragically short-lived love affair with fellow actor John Cazale; her marriage to sculptor Don Gummer; and her evolution as a young woman of the 1970s wrestling with changing ideas of feminism, marriage, love and sacrifice.

Featuring eight pages of black-and-white photos, this captivating story of the making of one of the most revered artistic careers of our time reveals a gifted young woman coming into her extraordinary talents at a time of immense transformation, offering a rare glimpse into the life of the actress long before she became an icon.

Audiobook available, read by Eliza Foss

Editorial Content for The Midnight Assassin: Panic, Scandal, and the Hunt for America's First Serial Killer

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Stuart Shiffman

In the prologue to his well-crafted historical whodunit, author Skip Hollandsworth asks a simple question: “Why is it that certain sensational events in history are remembered and others, just as dramatic, are completely forgotten?” The sensational events Hollandsworth is considering are crimes. One explanation for such spotty treatment is that criminal activity is a fairly common occurrence in society. Just read a newspaper or watch the news. Read More

Teaser

Beginning in December 1884, Austin, Texas was terrorized by someone equally as vicious and, in some ways, far more diabolical than London's infamous Jack the Ripper. For almost exactly one year, the Midnight Assassin crisscrossed the entire city, using axes, knives and long steel rods to rip apart women. Before it was all over, at least a dozen men would be arrested in connection with the murders. When Jack the Ripper began his attacks in 1888, London police investigators did wonder if the killer from Austin had crossed the ocean to terrorize their own city.

Promo

Beginning in December 1884, Austin, Texas was terrorized by someone equally as vicious and, in some ways, far more diabolical than London's infamous Jack the Ripper. For almost exactly one year, the Midnight Assassin crisscrossed the entire city, using axes, knives and long steel rods to rip apart women. Before it was all over, at least a dozen men would be arrested in connection with the murders. When Jack the Ripper began his attacks in 1888, London police investigators did wonder if the killer from Austin had crossed the ocean to terrorize their own city.

About the Book

In 19th-century Austin, Texas, a ruthless murderer terrorized the city in what would soon become a story more shocking than any fiction.

In the late 1800s, just as Austin was on the cusp of emerging from an isolated western outpost into a truly cosmopolitan metropolis, a series of brutal murders rocked the burgeoning city and shook it to its core. At the time, the concept of a serial killer was unknown and unimaginable, but the murders continued, the killer became more brazen, and the citizens’ panic reached a fever pitch.

For more than a decade, Texas Monthly journalist Skip Hollandsworth has researched this gripping tale of murder and madness that plays out like a well-crafted whodunit. With vivid historical detail and novelistic flair, Hollandsworth brings this terrifying saga to life.

Audiobook available, read by Clint Jordan

Editorial Content for Sweet Lamb of Heaven

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Norah Piehl

Trust Lydia Millet never to take the easy way out, or precisely follow expectations or conventions. Her previous novel, MERMAIDS IN PARADISE, started out as a satirical farce but turned into something quite surprisingly different. Her new effort, SWEET LAMB OF HEAVEN, does something similar. On the surface of things, it is a novel of psychological suspense, an exploration of what happens to a woman when she is controlled and tormented by an emotionally abusive spouse. But that really barely touches on what the book actually is about. Read More

Teaser

SWEET LAMB OF HEAVEN is the first-person account of a young mother, Anna, escaping her cold and unfaithful husband, a businessman who has just launched his first campaign for political office. When Ned chases Anna and their six-year-old daughter from Alaska to Maine, the two go into hiding in a run-down motel on the coast. But the longer they stay, the less the guests in the dingy motel look like typical tourists --- and the less Ned resembles a typical candidate. As his pursuit of Anna and their child moves from threatening to criminal, Ned begins to alter his wife’s world in ways she never could have imagined.

Promo

SWEET LAMB OF HEAVEN is the first-person account of a young mother, Anna, escaping her cold and unfaithful husband, a businessman who has just launched his first campaign for political office. When Ned chases Anna and their six-year-old daughter from Alaska to Maine, the two go into hiding in a run-down motel on the coast. But the longer they stay, the less the guests in the dingy motel look like typical tourists --- and the less Ned resembles a typical candidate. As his pursuit of Anna and their child moves from threatening to criminal, Ned begins to alter his wife’s world in ways she never could have imagined.

About the Book

Longlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction: Blending domestic thriller and psychological horror, this compelling page-turner follows a mother fleeing her estranged husband.

Lydia Millet’s previous work has been shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Likewise greeted with rapturous praise, SWEET LAMB OF HEAVEN is a first-person account of a young mother, Anna, fleeing her cold and unfaithful husband, a businessman who’s just launched his first campaign for political office. When Ned chases Anna and their six-year-old daughter from Alaska to Maine, the two go into hiding in a run-down motel on the coast. But the longer they stay, the less the guests in the dingy motel look like typical tourists --- and the less Ned resembles a typical candidate. As his pursuit of Anna and their child moves from threatening to criminal, Ned begins to alter his wife’s world in ways she never could have imagined. 

A double-edged and satisfying story with a strong female protagonist, a thrilling plot, and a creeping sense of the apocalyptic, SWEET LAMB OF HEAVEN builds to a shattering ending with profound implications for its characters --- and for all of us.

Audiobook available, read by Lydia Millet

Editorial Content for Tuesday Nights in 1980

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Jana Siciliano

When you read a book that is as much about a place as it is about those who inhabit that place at a particular time, you want the place to be as much of a character as any of the humans who live in it. In TUESDAY NIGHTS IN 1980, Molly Prentiss makes a credible leap at describing 1980s New York City (I first moved to Manhattan myself in 1984 and managed to breathe the dregs of this time in my own way). She tries her best to convey its crummy but delectable dirtiness and rundowness in the days before Disney brought its bulldozer to town and took down all the raunch from midtown. Read More

Teaser

Welcome to SoHo at the onset of the ’80s: a gritty, not-yet-gentrified playground for artists and writers looking to make it in the big city. Among them are James Bennett, a synesthetic art critic for the New York Times whose unlikely condition enables him to describe art in profound, magical ways, and Raul Engales, an exiled Argentinian painter running from his past and the Dirty War that has enveloped his country. As the two men ascend in the downtown arts scene, dual tragedies strike, and each is faced with a loss that acutely affects his relationship to life and to art.

Promo

Welcome to SoHo at the onset of the ’80s: a gritty, not-yet-gentrified playground for artists and writers looking to make it in the big city. Among them are James Bennett, a synesthetic art critic for the New York Times whose unlikely condition enables him to describe art in profound, magical ways, and Raul Engales, an exiled Argentinian painter running from his past and the Dirty War that has enveloped his country. As the two men ascend in the downtown arts scene, dual tragedies strike, and each is faced with a loss that acutely affects his relationship to life and to art.

About the Book

An intoxicating and transcendent debut novel that follows a critic, an artist, and a desirous, determined young woman as they find their way --- and ultimately collide --- amid the ever-evolving New York City art scene of the 1980s.

Welcome to SoHo at the onset of the 1980s: a gritty, not-yet-gentrified playground for artists and writers looking to make it in the big city. Among them: James Bennett, a synesthetic art critic for The New York Times whose unlikely condition enables him to describe art in profound, magical ways, and Raul Engales, an exiled Argentinian painter running from his past and the Dirty War that has enveloped his country. As the two men ascend in the downtown arts scene, dual tragedies strike, and each is faced with a loss that acutely affects his relationship to life and to art. It is not until they are inadvertently brought together by Lucy Olliason --- a small town beauty and Raul’s muse --- and a young orphan boy sent mysteriously from Buenos Aires, that James and Raul are able to rediscover some semblance of what they’ve lost.

As inventive as Jennifer Egan's A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD and as sweeping as Meg Wolitzer's THE INTERESTINGS, TUESDAY NIGHTS IN 1980 boldly renders a complex moment when the meaning and nature of art is being all but upended, and New York City as a whole is reinventing itself. In risk-taking prose that is as powerful as it is playful, Molly Prentiss deftly explores the need for beauty, community, creation and love in an ever-changing urban landscape.

Audiobook available, read by George Newbern

Editorial Content for City of Secrets

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Harvey Freedenberg

One hallmark of Stewart O'Nan's fine literary career is the sheer diversity of his subject matter. This is a writer whose output includes a quiet novel about the travails of an elderly woman (EMILY ALONE), a ghost story about teenagers killed in an automobile accident (THE NIGHT COUNTRY) and, most recently, a re-creation of the final days in Hollywood of F. Scott Fitzgerald (WEST OF SUNSET). And that's just a sampling of his writing's breadth. Read More

Teaser

In 1945, with no homes to return to, Jewish refugees by the tens of thousands set out for Palestine. Those who made it were hunted as illegals by the British mandatory authorities there and relied on the underground to shelter them. Taking fake names, they blended with the population, joining the wildly different factions fighting for the independence of Israel. CITY OF SECRETS follows one survivor, Brand, as he tries to regain himself after losing everyone he's ever loved.

Promo

In 1945, with no homes to return to, Jewish refugees by the tens of thousands set out for Palestine. Those who made it were hunted as illegals by the British mandatory authorities there and relied on the underground to shelter them. Taking fake names, they blended with the population, joining the wildly different factions fighting for the independence of Israel. CITY OF SECRETS follows one survivor, Brand, as he tries to regain himself after losing everyone he's ever loved.

About the Book

From master storyteller Stewart O'Nan, a timely moral thriller of the Jewish underground resistance in Jerusalem after the Second World War

In 1945, with no homes to return to, Jewish refugees by the tens of thousands set out for Palestine. Those who made it were hunted as illegals by the British mandatory authorities there and relied on the underground to shelter them; taking fake names, they blended with the population, joining the wildly different factions fighting for the independence of Israel.

CITY OF SECRETS follows one survivor, Brand, as he tries to regain himself after losing everyone he's ever loved. Now driving a taxi provided --- like his new identity --- by the underground, he navigates the twisting streets of Jerusalem as well as the overlapping, sometimes deadly loyalties of the resistance. Alone, haunted by memories, he tries to become again the man he was before the war --- honest, strong, capable of moral choice. He falls in love with Eva, a fellow survivor and member of his cell, reclaims his faith and commits himself to the revolution, accepting secret missions that grow more and more dangerous even as he begins to suspect he's being used by their cell's dashing leader, Asher. By the time Brand understands the truth, it's too late, and the tragedy that ensues changes history.

A noirish, deeply felt novel of intrigue and identity written in O'Nan's trademark lucent style, CITY OF SECRETS asks how both despair and faith can lead us astray, and what happens when, with the noblest intentions, we join movements beyond our control.

Audiobook available, read by Edoardo Ballerini

Editorial Content for The Yoga of Max's Discontent

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Maya Gittelman

Karan Bajaj's THE YOGA OF MAX'S DISCONTENT is a beautifully rendered epic journey, wholly worthy of the playful take on its namesake. Transcendent yet readable, spiritual yet wildly and deliberately accessible, the novel works on many levels and excels at them all. Read More

Teaser

The child of Greek immigrants who grew up in a dangerous New York housing project, Max Pzoras triumphed over his upbringing and became a successful Wall Street analyst. Yet on the night he’s involved in a violent street scuffle, Max begins to confront questions about suffering and mortality that have dogged him since his mother’s death. In an ultimate bid for answers, he embarks on a dangerous solitary meditation in a freezing Himalayan cave, where his physical and spiritual endurance is put to its most extreme test.

Promo

The child of Greek immigrants who grew up in a dangerous New York housing project, Max Pzoras triumphed over his upbringing and became a successful Wall Street analyst. Yet on the night he’s involved in a violent street scuffle, Max begins to confront questions about suffering and mortality that have dogged him since his mother’s death. In an ultimate bid for answers, he embarks on a dangerous solitary meditation in a freezing Himalayan cave, where his physical and spiritual endurance is put to its most extreme test.

About the Book

In this captivating and surprising novel of spiritual discovery --- a No. 1 bestseller in India --- a young American travels to India and finds himself tested physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Max Pzoras is the poster child for the American Dream. The child of Greek immigrants who grew up in a dangerous New York housing project, he triumphed over his upbringing and became a successful Wall Street analyst. Yet on the frigid December night he’s involved in a violent street scuffle, Max begins to confront questions about suffering and mortality that have dogged him since his mother’s death.

His search takes him to the farthest reaches of India, where he encounters a mysterious night market, almost freezes to death on a hike up the Himalayas, and finds himself in an ashram in a drought-stricken village in South India. As Max seeks answers to questions that have bedeviled him --- can yogis walk on water and live for 200 years without aging? Can a flesh-and-blood man ever achieve nirvana? --- he struggles to overcome his skepticism and the pull of family tugging him home. In an ultimate bid for answers, he embarks on a dangerous solitary meditation in a freezing Himalayan cave, where his physical and spiritual endurance is put to its most extreme test.

By turns a gripping adventure story and a journey of tremendous inner transformation, THE YOGA OF MAX'S DISCONTENT is a contemporary take on man's classic quest for transcendence.

Audiobook available, read by Neil Shah

Editorial Content for Better Dead: A Nathan Heller Thriller

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Kate Ayers

Spring, 1953.

“...I can go out and try to clear the Rosenbergs, and get us the kind of headline publicity the A-1 hasn’t seen in a while.”

“You pull this off,” he said, shaking his head, “and you’ll make a lot of Republicans unhappy.”

“Just the crazy ones,” I said, “…And that still leaves all those Democrats.” Read More

Teaser

It's the early 1950s, and Joe McCarthy is campaigning to rid America of the Red Menace. Nate Heller is doing legwork for the senator, though the Chicago detective is disheartened by McCarthy's witch-hunting tactics. He's made friends with a young staffer, Bobby Kennedy, while trading barbs with a potential enemy, the attorney Roy Cohn, who rubs Heller the wrong way. Not the least of which for successfully prosecuting the so-called Atomic Bomb spies, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. When Dashiell Hammett comes to Heller representing a group of showbiz and literary leftists who are engaged in a last-minute attempt to save the Rosenbergs, Heller decides to take on the case.

Promo

It's the early 1950s, and Joe McCarthy is campaigning to rid America of the Red Menace. Nate Heller is doing legwork for the senator, though the Chicago detective is disheartened by McCarthy's witch-hunting tactics. He's made friends with a young staffer, Bobby Kennedy, while trading barbs with a potential enemy, the attorney Roy Cohn, who rubs Heller the wrong way. Not the least of which for successfully prosecuting the so-called Atomic Bomb spies, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. When Dashiell Hammett comes to Heller representing a group of showbiz and literary leftists who are engaged in a last-minute attempt to save the Rosenbergs, Heller decides to take on the case.

About the Book

It's the early 1950s. Joe McCarthy is campaigning to rid America of the Red Menace. Nate Heller is doing legwork for the senator, though the Chicago detective is disheartened by McCarthy's witch-hunting tactics. He's made friends with a young staffer, Bobby Kennedy, while trading barbs with a potential enemy, the attorney Roy Cohn, who rubs Heller the wrong way. Not the least of which for successfully prosecuting the so-called Atomic Bomb spies, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. When famous mystery writer Dashiell Hammett comes to Heller representing a group of showbiz and literary leftists who are engaged in a last minute attempt to save the Rosenbergs, Heller decides to take on the case.

Heller will have to play both sides to do this, and when McCarthy also tasks Heller to find out what the CIA has on him, Heller reluctantly agrees. His main lead is an army scientist working for the C.I.A. who admits to Heller that he's been having misgivings about the work he's doing and elliptically referring to the Cold War making World War II look like a tea party.

And then the scientist goes missing.