Secrets of State

March 2, 2015
Recently retired State Department officer Sam Trainor, the hero of Palmer’s exciting second thriller (after 2014’s The American Mission), has bounced around the subcontinent of South Asia during his 25-year career until retiring and taking a job with Argus Systems, a contractor supplying intelligence and analysis of South Asia to the CIA. While reading top-secret intel on his computer, Sam stumbles on an NSA report of a phone call involving Vanalika Chandra, the political counselor at the Indian embassy in Washington, D.C., with whom he’s having an affair. The substance of the call concerns a clandestine project whose purpose is to drive India and Pakistan into a nuclear war. As Sam follows this lead, the bodies begin to fall. After a group of terrorists steal a Pakistani nuclear warhead, Sam finds himself in a race to find and defuse the bomb before it destroys an entire city. Readers will be pleased that the ending suggests Sam will be back. Agent: Meg Ruley, Jane Rotrosen Agency.

March 15, 2015
A rogue nuclear weapon and a ticking clock lie at the heart of this engaging thriller by the author of The American Mission (2014). Terrorists plan to explode a small nuclear bomb in Mumbai, India. But, of course, "there really is no such thing as a small nuclear bomb," as Palmer writes. The disaster would likely trigger a fourth war between India and Pakistan and ultimately give the U.S. a pretext to destroy all Pakistani nukes. Former U.S. diplomat Sam Trainor discovers the elaborate plot. He'd been too outspoken for government work and is now employed by Argus Systems, a Virginia-based consulting firm providing foreign intelligence and analysis to the CIA; Argus' Cassandra Project creates computer models to predict possible nuclear terrorist attacks. Sam, a widower with a beautiful daughter, Lena, is secretly having an affair with a married woman who works for the Indian Embassy in Washington. Argus sends him from Virginia to Mumbai, where he finds plenty of vivid settings and action. Shadowy terrorists linked to Argus apparently have placed the nuclear device near where Lena works among the Dalit-formerly the untouchables-in Mumbai's malodorous slums. The bomb might kill a hundred thousand Dalit in that city of 20 million, serving a greater good in the eyes of some. The characters are not always what they seem, and tricky twists result. A red-digit timer in a Mumbai slum counts down the seconds to the feared holocaust, so Sam and friends mustn't tarry. One might wonder what purpose those timers serve for the terrorists, but they're surely a useful cliche for thrillers. And they reinforce tension even if the overall outcome is eminently guessable. Meanwhile, a few chapters wander back to the battleship Maine, the days before Pearl Harbor, the JFK assassination, and other digressions that slow the story's momentum but hold the reader's interest. A well-written imagining of how India and Pakistan could be pushed to the brink of nuclear disaster.

May 15, 2015

Sam Trainor is a former Foreign Service officer specializing in South Asia who has been exiled to a private governmental consulting firm. While looking over some reports, he notices a transcript of an odd telephone conversation. The subject? How to drive India and Pakistan to nuclear war. Now with bodies piling up, his daughter kidnapped in India, and his life in danger, Sam must try to outwit, and outlive, a secret organization while also trying to save a country he has come to love. Palmer (The American Mission) is a Foreign Service Officer himself and his experiences and knowledge provide a realistic backdrop to his novel. To add to the realism, Palmer doesn't make his protagonist a James Bond but rather an ordinary man caught up in extraordinary circumstances, which is reflected in Sam's choices and abilities. While the story begins slowly, it's not long before the action ramps up into a cat-and-mouse thriller that will cause the reader to wonder which characters Sam should trust. VERDICT An excellent political thriller that readers of both espionage stories and thrillers in general will enjoy. Reminiscent of Brad Meltzer's works; his fans will find much to like about Palmer.--Laura Hiatt-Smith, Conifer, CO

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2015
In Palmer's follow-up to his intriguing The American Mission (2014), Sam Trainor, Argus Security consultant and former South Asia analyst for the Bureau of Intelligence & Research, recognizes that the transcript of a conversation between representatives of India and Pakistan signals a conspiracy designed to trigger a war between the two countries. There's more: Sam's company may well be the puppet master of the entire operation. As Trainor looks for answers, he realizes that the dangerous connection between politics and corporate profit could lead to global catastrophe. Palmer was a member of the Council of Foreign Relations, and he uses his knowledge of how behind-the-scenes maneuvers actually work to great effect in this involving and frightening political thriller.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)