The End Game

Starred review from August 3, 2015
Bestseller Coulter and Ellison’s intense, captivating third Brit in the FBI novel (after 2014’s The Lost Key) pits FBI agent Nicholas Drummond and his partner, Michaela “Mike” Caine, against Celebrants of Earth, a small terrorist group whose goal is “to eliminate oil imports from the Middle East.” When a bomb explodes at an oil refinery in Bayonne, N.J., causing multiple casualties, CIA agent Vanessa Grace, who’s been operating undercover in COE, fears that the group plans to escalate the violence. In particular, Vanessa worries COE will target a high-level U.S. government official in retaliation for American involvement in Middle East peace negotiations. Meanwhile, COE may be harboring one of the world’s most dangerous assassins, Zahir Damari. Nicholas and Mike work in perfect sync, never missing a beat when interviewing witnesses, despite Nicholas’s fastidious nature and the ever-present attraction between the two. Their relationship leaves much room for developments in future installments of this excellent suspense series. Agent: Robert Gottlieb, Trident Media Group.

July 15, 2015
The FBI goes after a most unusual group of terrorists. FBI Special Agent Michaela "Mike" Caine and her British partner, Nicholas Drummond, are on the trail of a shadowy terrorist organization known as the Celebrants of Earth. The anti-Muslim group-run by the brilliant scientist Matthew Spenser, whose family was killed in the 2007 terrorist bombing of the London Underground-has been trying to stop the importing of oil from the Middle East by bombing refineries but never hurting people. A tip leads Mike and Nicholas to Bayonne, New Jersey, too late to stop the bombing of the Bayway refinery but not too late to participate in the rescue efforts. This explosion's fatal consequences leave many government agencies wondering why the formerly nonmurderous COE has escalated its activities. Unknown to other agencies, the CIA has placed an undercover agent, Vanessa Grace, in the group, where she works with Spenser, posing as a bomb maker. All seems to be going well until the enigmatic Darius worms his way into COE, bringing a large sum of money and slowly turning Spenser into a man willing to use increasingly violent means in the form of a tiny, undetectable, and extremely powerful bomb he's invented. The group also has a computer hacker who duels with Nicholas, whose limits are tested when COE attempts to crash the power grid. When Spenser snaps and shoots Vanessa, the CIA finally comes clean and works with the FBI to unmask a professional killer who has a contract on the vice president of the United States. The third in the series featuring the brilliant Brit (The Lost Key, 2014, etc.) adds scary technology to physical action to produce a tip-top thriller.

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Starred review from August 1, 2015
Ecoterrorist group Celebrants of the Earth (COE) is protesting the import of oil from Islamic countries by attacking refineries worldwide while vowing to take no innocent lives. Until, that is, COE founder and leader Matthew Spenser, inventor of a powerful coin-size explosive, is manipulated by notorious, chameleon-like assassin Zahir Damari, posing as a wealthy man called Darius, who is targeting the most powerful people in the U.S. When COE blows up a New Jersey refinery with double-digit casualties, FBI Special Agents Michaela (Mike) Caine and Englishman Nicholas Drummond help save lives at the scene, then take off after COE, using intelligence from a CIA agent who was embedded in the group and left for dead. Cyberterrorism also is on COE's agenda, and Drummond uses all of his contacts and hacking skills to foil attacks on oil companies, power grids, even Air Force One. In nonstop action covering less than a week, Caine and Drummond are challenged as never before, taking both their personal and professional relationships to new levels. This third in the series (after The Lost Key, 2014) is an adrenaline-fueled caper that's hard to put down. Another hit for the team of Coulter and Ellison.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

April 1, 2015

Nicholas Drummond, on his third case as the "Brit in the FBI" (after The Lost Key) rustles up partner Mike Caine to investigate Celebrants of the Earth (COE), a violent environmental group that's been bombing power grids and oil refineries across the country. Now COE is gunning for the president, and our Brit and his buddy must join forces with counterterrorism expert Vanessa Grace, fresh from having infiltrated COE, to make sure nothing bad happens.

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