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Alexa Hunt is a former journalist. She lives in Missouri with her husband.

Former assassin Leah Berglund and Pulitzer-winning reporter Elliott Delgado are back and chasing two suitcase nukes on the loose inside the United States in this gritty, near-future thriller.

Whoever stole the nukes is leaving a trail of dead bodies behind him, but before Leah and Del can track him down they’ve got to figure out who wants to buy the nukes:

* Is it Holy Arabia, the fanatic Muslim government that has overthrown the House of Saud in a bloody coup?

* Is it the Fidelista exiles hiding in Miami intent on overthrowing Cuba’s fledgling democracy?

* Or a domestic drug dealer in the war zone of America’s cities?

* Or the rival of the Colombian Cartel boss who rules all of South America?

Together Leah and Del unravel a plot within a plot, culminating in two simultaneous races to stop the bombs from detonating. If they fail, the heart and soul of our homeland will be left in radioactive ruins.

Publishers Weekly

Former journalist Hunt's sequel to Corrupts Absolutely(2005), which boldly imagined a near-future U.S. in which the war on terror has led to martial law, further explores the war's impact on American society, but the execution falls short of the intriguing premise. In the opening pages, headlines announce that the Martial Law Act has been repealed, the shadowy Bureau of Illegal Substance Control is to be disbanded, and Islamic fundamentalists have finally overthrown the Saudi royal family. As a bitter presidential election looms, Elliott Delgado, an investigative reporter, and Leah Berglund, a social worker who used to be an officially sanctioned assassin, learn that some suitcase nukes have entered the U.S. as part of a plot meant to dwarf the 9/11 tragedy. Paul Oppermann, the Yiddish-spouting FBI director, and former senator Adam Manchester, the leading Republican presidential candidate, make unlikely action allies as the plot builds to its uninspired climax. (Mar.)