The Directive

March 10, 2014
Washington, D.C., political fixer Mike Ford wouldn’t flinch at a .45 to the temple, but as his wedding to the woman of his dreams, fellow lawyer Annie Clark, approaches, he begins to freak out, in Quirk’s fast-paced sequel to The 500. And that’s even before some mysterious heavies threaten to kill Annie unless Mike helps them pull off a risky high-tech heist involving breaching the security of the New York Federal Reserve. In addition, Mike discovers that his partner in crime—ostensibly also strong-armed—will be his long-estranged brother, Jack, an inveterate con man who embodies the toxic past that Mike has struggled so hard to put behind him. Quirk keeps the action credible, from Beltway backstory to the white-knuckle caper at the New York Fed, but all the triple-crosses can’t conceal the fact that most of the characters serve as little more than action figures in a game whose biggest surprise many readers will guess in advance. Agent: Shawn Coyne, Endeavor Agency.

May 15, 2014
A young Washington, D.C., attorney who inherited his con man father's skills and love of risk is forced under pain of death to steal trading secrets worth billions from the Federal Reserve Bank.Mike Ford may be a Harvard Law graduate, but he never learns. In Quirk's previous novel, The 500 (2012), he got in murderously over his head spying on influential congressmen for a life-altering payday. In this new book, a brutal schemer threatens to kill Mike and his brother, Jack, a chronic screw-up on the verge of landing in prison like their old man, unless Mike breaks into the D.C. office that issues billion-dollar trading directives to the Fed. When, on the eve of his engagement party, Mike starts offering phony excuses for his sudden disappearances, he angers his fiancee, Annie, one of the spoils of The 500. Her snooty British father, who runs a shadowy hedge fund, has never liked him. Pulling stunts like bursting into a social gathering and threatening a man with a knife doesn't smooth tensions with her. After enduring grueling torture, Mike applies his considerable skills to the heist, including picking supposedly impenetrable locks, cracking security systems and setting up his own surveillance. He also sets traps for the bad guys-for whom, he increasingly suspects, Jack is working. There's enough action for three thrillers and plenty of twists and turns. But the shaky plot, which revolves around Mike's trust-him, don't-trust-him feelings toward his brother, quickly becomes tiresome. Mike's cardboard personality ensures that the book will fail to involve the reader more than superficially.A fast-paced but emotionally empty follow-up to The 500.

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March 15, 2014

In Quirk's follow-up to his acclaimed debut thriller, The 500, attorney Mike Ford is again on the run, this time framed for murder and pursued by conspirators who willingly kill to coerce his aid. With Mike as front man, they plan to steal--before its release--the top-secret directive regularly issued by the Federal Reserve to guide U.S. economic policy. Mike's con man father is out of prison but not much help; his untrustworthy brother, Jack, having flubbed his part in the conspiracy, is willing to sacrifice Mike's life to save his own. The father of Mike's fiancee, a wealthy power broker, hates Mike. The female CEO of a security firm wants to help, but her actions threaten to sabotage Mike and Annie's wedding. These problems fade to insignificance when Mike realizes that to survive he will have to do the impossible--gain access to and egress from one of the most secure sites in Washington, DC. VERDICT Sustained by Quirk's research, an engrossing plot, the ever-increasing tension of a deadly cat and mouse game, and high stakes, this page-turner will attract not only fans of such financial-thriller authors as Christopher Reich and Joseph Finder but all those looking for a fun, fast-flowing beach read. [See Prepub Alert, 11/1/13.]--Ron Terpening, Univ. of Arizona, Tucson

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 15, 2014
Having barely escaped alive from a corrupt consulting firm (in the blockbuster The 500, 2012), lawyer Mike Ford has established himself as a go-to political fixer in Washington, D.C. But his plan to live a quiet, respectable life is sorely threatened when his older brother, Jack, drags him into a job to steal the Federal Reserve's directive on monetary policy prior to a major announcement, opening up a two-hour window for some serious insider training. Mike, resourceful and well-schooled in cons and grifts from childhood by his ex-con father, plans to blow up the job from the inside until the lives of his fianc'e, Annie Clark (daughter of a megarich hedge-fund operator), and his father are threatened. Then it becomes a deadly race to learn who's behind it allkeeping in mind his father's advice to never bet in another man's game and come out of the mess as best he can. Solidly researched, with elements of a technothriller, this is a nonstop, heart-pounding ride in which moral blacks and whites turn gray in the efficient alignment of power and interests that is big-time politics. Quirk has another high-powered hit on his hands.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)