About this ebook
From an Edgar award winner, this thriller about a physicist forced to make an A-bomb is “a splendid account of the excesses of science and bureaucracy” (The New York Times).
An American physicist working in Hamburg, Jim Hawkins is on his way home from his job at a German nuclear institute when he is rammed off the road and abducted by terrorists. Drugged and taken to a secret location, he wakes to find himself being held hostage alongside his terrified wife and daughters. With nothing else to do but comply with the terrorists’ demands, Jim begins to build a weapon powerful enough to destroy the world. The target: a conference in Lake Geneva, where heads of state are meeting, even as news of his abduction has reached the ears of the American president, only to be dismissed as rumor. Will anyone be able to convince the world leaders of the threat in time?
“Freeling moves from straight suspense to a science thriller and keeps his kinkiness intact. . . . Brilliant.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
An American physicist working in Hamburg, Jim Hawkins is on his way home from his job at a German nuclear institute when he is rammed off the road and abducted by terrorists. Drugged and taken to a secret location, he wakes to find himself being held hostage alongside his terrified wife and daughters. With nothing else to do but comply with the terrorists’ demands, Jim begins to build a weapon powerful enough to destroy the world. The target: a conference in Lake Geneva, where heads of state are meeting, even as news of his abduction has reached the ears of the American president, only to be dismissed as rumor. Will anyone be able to convince the world leaders of the threat in time?
“Freeling moves from straight suspense to a science thriller and keeps his kinkiness intact. . . . Brilliant.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
About the author
Nicolas Freeling (1927–2003) was a British crime novelist best known for the Van Der Valk detective series. After serving in the military and working as a hotel and restaurant cook throughout Europe, he began writing his first novel, Love in Amsterdam, while serving a three-week sentence for stealing food from the restaurant where he worked. Freeling’s novel King of the Rainy Country received the Edgar Allan Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America. Among his other literary awards are the Gold Dagger from the British Crime Writers Association and France’s Grand Prix de Roman Policier.
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