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Frederick Forsyth is the author of nine bestselling novels: The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, The Dogs of War, The Devil's Alternative, The Fourth Protocol, The Negotiator, The Deceiver, The Fist of God and Icon.  He lives outside London.

Summer 1999.  Russia stands on the threshold of anarchy.  An interim president sits powerless in Moscow as his nation is  wracked by famine and inflation, crime and corruption, and seething hordes of the unemployed roam the streets.  For them, only one man holds out hope.  The striking voice of Igor Komarov, waiting in the wings for the presidential election of January 2000, rings out over the airwaves, mesmerizing the masses with the promise of law, order, and prosperity--and the return to glory of their once great land.

Then a document falls into the hands of British Intelligence.  Quickly dubbed the Black Manifesto, it outlines Komarov's secret plan for the regime as autocratic and evil as Hitler's Third Reich.  Officially the West can do nothing, but in secret a group of elder statesmen sends the only person who can expose the truth about Komarov into the heart of the inferno. Ex-CIA agent Jason Monk has a dual mission: to stop Komarov, whatever it takes, and to prepare the way for an icon worthy of the Russian people.  But to do this, Monk must stay alive--and the forces allied against him are ruthless, the time frighteningly short...

Only Frederick Forsyth, the unparalleled master of the novel of international intrigue, could create this riveting thriller, as timely and unsettling as tomorrow's headlines.

The New York Times - Scott Martelle

The story is vintage Forsyth -- intricate, exact and gripping, despite a writing style that reads like a field report. And Mr. Forsyth's skillful weaving of real figures into the backdrop of his fiction lends his story an extra degree of authority. While you know from the opening pages that the good guys will win, you can never be sure which ones will survive.