The Assassin » (Reprint)

Born in England, Andrew Britton moved with his family to the United States when he was seven, settling in Michigan, then North Carolina. After serving in the Army as a combat engineer, Andrew entered the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and received his degree just before his death in 2008, at the age of 27.

More than a year has passed since Ryan Kealey prevented the assassination of multiple world leaders in the nation’s capital. While his work is brilliant, he’s considered damaged goods. Now he’s about to become a key player in a plot of unimaginable scale. For something big is about to go down in New York City.

When a top Iranian source reveals that Iran is planning to bomb the United Nations, U.S. Intelligence begins counter-measures. Only Kealey sees it as a smokescreen for another, far more involved plot. But getting anyone to believe him isn’t going to be easy. With only his ally, London’s newest assistant chief, Naomi Kharmai, by his side, Ryan will have to operate outside the lines in order to prevent a terrible attack in a city on lockdown.

A weapon of catastrophic power has been stolen from war-torn Iraq and has made its way to the U.S. The man who has it is Kealey’s nemesis, William Vanderveen, an international criminal mastermind who has no objective other than pure terror and who will stop at nothing to achieve it. Making matters worse, Vanderveen’s being helped by someone on the inside with high ranking security clearance. Even the halls of the CIA are no longer safe from possible espionage and treason. Now, as Kealey and Kharmai race to put the pieces together, they will confront a ghost from the past and be forced to question the people they trust most in a desperate investigation where only this is for certain time is running out.

Publishers Weekly

Britton's second contemporary political thriller (after 2006's The American) sets up an alternate reality that may distract some readers from a decent if unremarkable plot centering on terrorist plans to attack the U.N. and leave clues pointing to the Iranian government. Dennis Hastert is Speaker of the House, and the American political leadership is debating whether to withdraw troops from Iraq, but the U.S. president is not George W. Bush but David Brenneman, who's facing a fierce re-election opponent in California governor Richard Fiske, who's clearly not Arnold Schwarzenegger. The characters, including Jack Ryan-clone Ryan Kealey, are cookie-cutter, and the action-from the discovery of a high-ranking mole to the obligatory under-fire romance-offers nothing new. Britton has a long way to go before he joins the front rank of thriller writers. Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.