The Last Minute

April 16, 2012
In Thriller Award–finalist Abbott’s exciting if tortuous sequel to Adrenaline (2010), CIA agent Sam Capra continues to search for his infant son, Daniel, held by the cartel of evil known as Novem Soles (Nine Suns). At the behest of the cartel, Sam must kill Chinese graduate student and computer hacker Jin Ming, who holds secrets that might destroy Novem Soles. Meanwhile, the cartel snatches Taylor, the baby daughter of computer expert Leonie, and blackmails Leonie into helping Sam locate Ming. With their children’s lives at stake, the two will do anything to save Taylor and Daniel. Fights, flights, betrayals, and shifting alliances all play out against the constant threat to the children as a much battered Sam seeks an end game that will give him back his life and his son. A closing twist that violates fair play will annoy some readers. 5-city author tour. Agent: Peter Ginsberg, Curtis Brown.

December 1, 2012
Just because the ex-wife and CIA colleague who betrayed Sam Capra lies in a coma and the son he's never met has been kidnapped doesn't mean there's no more fight left in the man. Not by a long shot. Forgoing such niceties as back story and exposition--hey, read Adrenaline (2011) if you want to get oriented--Abbott plunges into Sam's story as he and his mysterious partner, Mila, are meeting with a representative from an illegal adoption agency in the hope of finding Sam's infant son, Daniel. Naturally, the meeting goes awry, and Sam ends up with an offer he can't refuse: agree to join a total stranger in tracking down and assassinating someone for the people who have his son if he ever wants to see Daniel face to face. Leonie, Sam's new accomplice, is an information broker so skilled at hiding people that the international outlaw organization Novem Soles figures she must be equally good at finding them. And she's also under the gun, since Novem Soles has snatched her daughter, Taylor, as well. Their designated target is Jack Ming, a young hacker who's learned more about Novem Soles than either he or they wanted. Jack has just flown from Europe to New York to visit his mother, Sandra, a State Department officer turned consultant, and put some distance between himself and his pursuers. Neither goal works out, and the second of many action sequences that seem choreographed with one eye on the movies leaves Sam holding Sandra's hand as she expires and promising that he'll do his best to protect her son. It's all a lie, of course, but a dizzying series of plot twists will make it more true than Sam could have imagined. Enough hired guns, double bluffs, CIA turncoats, narrow escapes, acts of political and personal treachery and scenes of armed and bare-knuckled combat for a miniseries. The perfect antidote for Downton Abbey.

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February 15, 2012

Sam Capra owns bars worldwide for a desperate reason: he uses them as a cover to hunt for his kidnapped son. Now the kidnappers will return the child if Sam agrees to murder the one man they see as a threat. Some bargain. The author of Adrenaline is big but could be even bigger.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2012
In Adrenaline (2011), CIA agent Sam Capra's colleagues were killed in a bomb blast, his wife and child were abducted, and Sam was accused of committing treason. Now, desperate to find his son, Sam agrees to work for an enigmatic group called the Round Table, whose members claim to have vital information that can lead Sam to the boy. Sam's assignment is to find and assassinate a fugitive hacker before he surrenders himself to the CIA. Like Adrenaline, this is a fast-paced thriller with a likable, morally conflicted hero. Sam is in a difficult situation, seemingly forced to commit murder to find his son, andthis is a testament to Abbott's skills as a storytellerwe really don't know whether he will follow through. The book ends on an upbeat note, giving Sam a certain amount of closure. Still, let's hope Abbott isn't through with Sam. He's a very well drawn character, and it would be nice to see him again.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)