President Down Book

Phil Mason, former intelligence officer and one-time instructor at the British Army School of Sniping, is struggling to make ends meet as a private investigator when he's contacted by his former MI5 liaison officer. The overstretched security service needs all the help it can get hunting down members of al-Qaeda terror cells in the UK—and Mason needs the cash. But in the murky intelligence world of smoke and mirrors, nothing is what it seems. As a routine surveillance operation escalates into a full-blown international crisis, Mason must come to terms with the unthinkable: there must be a traitor within Britain's security forces. Entering a desperate race against time to identify and avert a major terrorist threat, Mason must hastily rehone his counter-sniper skills as he returns to the business he swore he had left behind forever—the killing game.

Publishers Weekly

British bestseller Strong (Stalking Horse) delves into the murky world of espionage and terrorism as seen through the eyes of Phil Mason, a former Royal Marine sniper turned PI. A little surveillance on an easy target turns into an investigation of several people with suspected ties to al-Qaeda and other Islamic terrorists. With a team that includes his former lover, interpreter Jasmina “Jazz” Alagic, and a Pakistani MI5 agent called Popadom, Mason goes to work and soon stumbles upon an assassination plot of frightening magnitude. Strong predictably runs down the checklist of the world-weary hero’s personal life—a checkered past, an acrimonious divorce, a stack of unpaid bills—but thorough research and ample details grant verisimilitude, and cutting-edge spy gadgets, topical issues, and a surprisingly nuanced understanding of world politics and Islamic tradition make this more than your basic anti-terrorist shoot-’em-up. (July)