The First Order

November 23, 2015
In bestseller Abbott’s fast-paced, high-octane fifth thriller featuring ex-CIA operative Sam Capra (after 2014’s The Inside Man), an unnamed prospective client offers master hit man Philip Judge $20 million to pull off “the most dangerous assassination in history”—the murder of Russian president Dmitri Morozov on American soil. The job seems like an inevitable suicide mission, until Judge gets an idea from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar that would enable him to kill Morozov and live to enjoy the payday. Meanwhile, Sam desperately searches for his younger brother, Danny, who was supposedly murdered in the Hindu Kush six years earlier by a group calling itself the Brothers of the Mountain. Sam, who finds evidence that Danny’s death was staged, turns for help to his former colleagues in the Round Table, “a secret alliance that... tried to be a force for good in the world.” Abbott offers plenty of twists, though genre readers will find little that’s new, and Sam isn’t the most memorable series lead. Author tour. Agent: Peter Ginsberg, Curtis Brown.

December 1, 2015
An epic struggle between two brothers throws Russian-American relations in jeopardy during this strong installment of Abbott's series (Inside Man, 2014, etc.) featuring ex-CIA sleuth Sam Capra. Just when Capra is sure he's about to retire, he gets word that his brother, Danny, thought to have been beheaded in a terrorist video, may still be alive. He doesn't yet know that Danny, now known as Philip Judge, has become a killer for hire who's just taken on his biggest assignment, executing the president of Russia for $20 million. Both brothers wind up infiltrating the circle of Russian billionaires who've landed in Miami. To stop Danny from carrying out the execution, Sam needs to find the identity of Firebird, the president's associate who commissioned the hit. Sam is helped considerably by his ability to attract women: he charms hard-partying Russian celebrity Katya Kirova and falls into a sexual affair with Irina Belinskaya, the widow of a high-ranking official, whose rumored vengeance on her husband's killers has earned her the title of Russia's most dangerous woman. Meanwhile, Sam's associate, Mila, has her own reasons to find Danny and keeps her information hidden from Sam--throwing him into further danger before the brothers reach their climactic confrontation. Abbott loads his story with entertaining plot twists, not all of which make perfect sense, but the bond and betrayal between the two brothers add emotional depth to the action.

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December 15, 2015
In the fifth Sam Capra thriller, the American intelligence agent is shocked to discover that his brother, whom he watched (via videotape) being murdered, may be alive. Not only that, but he just might be an assassin-for-hire whose latest assignment is to kill the Russian president. Can Sam save the president and his brother, or will he have to sacrifice one to save the other? Fast paced and just plausible enough to satisfy readers who demand realism in their adrenaline-fueled thrillers, the book should definitely appeal to action fans. Each novel in the series can be read as a stand-alone, which means newcomers can plunge right in. Go for it.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

August 1, 2015

Three-time Edgar Award nominee Abbott returns with the fifth in his high-octane, newly formatted Sam Capra series. Positioned for breakout; with a 40,000-copy first printing.

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