Part of Cotton Malone, book 11
First published 2016
Cotton Malone's plane goes down over the frozen wilderness of Siberia, leaving the former Justice Department agent stranded in hostile territory. His captor is Aleksandr Zorin, a bitter ex-Soviet operative whose decades of resentment have crystallized into pure hatred for America. Malone discovers that Zorin and a sleeper agent embedded in the West are racing toward Washington D.C. with a deadly Cold War weapon once dismissed as legend. Their target is Inauguration Day, just hours away. Constitutional flaws and weaknesses in the presidential succession act have created a window of vulnerability that Zorin plans to exploit. The key lies buried in the archives of the Society of Cincinnati, America's oldest fraternal organization, which once helped presidents plan military invasions of Canada as a potential 14th American colony. Malone must escape the Russian wilderness and reach the White House before noon on January 20th, all while confronting a paralyzing fear he has spent years denying.
Genres: historical-fiction, adventure, mystery, action, espionage, political-thriller
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, fish-out-of-water, race-against-time
Setting: Canada, Russia, Siberia, United States, Washington D.C.
Period: Cold War, Inauguration Day
450 pages · Hardcover · Minotaur Books