Absolute Risk

Starred review from September 27, 2010
In Gore's masterful second thriller featuring San Francisco PI Graham Gage (after Final Target), Gage's investigation of a former FBI agent's mysterious death puts him on the track of Hani Ibrahim, an MIT economist deported under suspicion of masterminding a scheme to funnel money to foreign terrorists. In rural China, an earthquake sparks a workers' uprising, complicating the efforts of Gage's wife, Faith, to rescue two Chinese friends from government forces in the area. As Gage gets closer to discovering that Ibrahim is behind a terrorist act that could destroy the world's economy, the detective's actions imperil Faith's safety further. When U.S. vice president Cooper Wallace, a devout evangelical, ascends to the presidency at the peak of a worldwide financial crisis, Wallace faces a faith-based dilemma: should he act to save the country if the economic disaster is part of God's larger plan for humanity? Sharp, smart writing and convincing economic detail put this in the front rank of genre fiction.

December 1, 2010

Graham Gage, a private detective with entree into many high-level organizations, is hired by the head of the Federal Reserve to make sense of a number of seemingly unconnected incidents involving the FBI, international spying, murder, and the possible collapse of the American economy. While Gage moves around the United States, to France, and then to Washington, DC, his wife, who is on an archaeological dig in China, is captured by an unscrupulous army general and is used to put pressure on the U.S. government to undermine a Chinese political uprising. VERDICT Vast knowledge of international affairs, economics, politics, and psychology add depth to Gore's second novel featuring Gage (Final Target). The possibility of his plot devices coming to fruition is alarmingly real in today's world. Brad Meltzer and Vince Flynn fans will love this. [Poisoned Press is issuing a limited hardcover edition, ISBN 9781590587713. $24.95.--Ed.]

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