by Barry Eisler
First published 2009
Alex Treven has built his career around one goal: making partner at his Silicon Valley law firm. Then the inventor of a breakthrough encryption technology turns up dead in what looks like a drug deal gone wrong. When the patent examiner who reviewed the same technology also dies, Alex realizes someone is eliminating everyone connected to the invention. After barely surviving an attack at his own home, Alex makes a desperate call to the one person who might be able to help him: his estranged brother Ben. Ben Treven operates in the shadows as a Military Liaison Element, hunting high-value targets in America's war on terror. He lives detached from a country he sees as soft and in denial. The brothers haven't spoken since their mother's funeral, but blood runs deeper than old wounds. Ben rushes to San Francisco, where Alex reveals another complication: Sarah Hosseini, an Iranian American lawyer who knows about the technology and whom Alex secretly loves. Ben doesn't trust her motives. As the three fight to identify their enemies, the brothers must confront the buried grievances that tore them apart while Sarah's presence threatens to divide them again.
Genres: suspense, mystery, crime, contemporary, thriller, action
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, estranged-brothers
Setting: America, Iran, San Francisco, Silicon Valley
Period: 21st-century
308 pages · Hardcover · Ballantine Books
Content warnings: violence