| U.S. Marshall
Roland Larson has committed a terrible sin. He’s fallen
for the witness he’s guarding. Hope Stevens was part of
a team of auditors who exposed a multi-million dollar Medicare
fraud. She uncovered emails detailing various murders for
hire in addition to the insurance scam. The trail led back
to the Romanos, a ruthless mob family. Many of the other
witnesses are already dead, killed by various Romano family
members. The deaths were gruesome, and clearly intended to
scare off other witnesses. After a third unsuccessful
attempt on her life left Marshalls
dead and wounded, her entry into the witness protection program
was accelerated. She asks Larson to come with her.
It’s only then that he realizes he would be giving up
everything and everyone he’s ever known to go into hiding with
a woman he’s known for a period of months. He takes the
night to think about it, but he’s too late. When he
returns to the safe house, Hope is gone.
Six years
later, Larson, now part of the Fugitive Apprehension Task Force,
is called to the scene of a murder. A subject called Uncle
Leo is gone. Leopold Markowitz is the man who wrote the
code that protects the names and identities of everyone in the
witness protection program. Uncle Leo and his program are
gone. His assistant lies dead on the floor. The
signature of this killer is identical to the one found during
the final attempt on Hope. The Romano family has the list
and the software. It’s only a matter of days before they
break through the encryptions. Then things get worse for
Larson. Hope is missing again. The Romanos have her.
Even more shocking, they have the daughter Larson never knew he
had. The race is on to protect Hope and his daughter, and,
by extension, everyone else in the witness protection program.
Fans of
the Lou Boldt series may be slightly disappointed to realize
that this is a standalone novel, but that disappointment should
fade away by the end of the first paragraph. This is a
fast-moving roller coaster ride of a novel. Every player
has his own game, and his own side bets on the outcome.
The bad guys are fearsome, and the good guys are doing
everything they can to stop them. There are a couple of
points that strain credulity (for instance, would Hope’s
memory of destroyed emails really have any probative value in a
court case?) but these are few and far between. Longtime
readers of Pearson will be happy to suspend disbelief and go
along for the ride. A word of warning: If you start this
late at night, make sure you don’t have to be anywhere in the
morning. This one is impossible to put down.
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