The #1 New York Times bestselling author of While Justice Sleeps
returns with another riveting and intricately plotted thriller, in which
a blackmailed federal judge, a secret court and a brazen murder may lead
to an unprecedented national crisis.
"A thoroughly compelling take on the machinations of Washington and
those covetous of power." --New York Magazine
Supreme Court clerk Avery Keene is back, trying to get her feet on solid
ground after unraveling an international conspiracy in While Justice
Sleeps. But as the sparks of Congressional hearings and political
skirmishes swirl around her, Avery is approached at a legal conference
by Preston Davies, an unassuming young man and fellow law clerk to a
federal judge in Idaho. Davies believes his boss, Judge Francesca
Whitner, was being blackmailed in the days before she died. Desperate to
understand what happened, he gives Avery a file, a burner phone, and a
fearful warning that there are highly dangerous people involved.
Another shocking murder leads Avery to a list of names - all federal
judges - and, alarmingly, all judges on the FISA Court (the United
States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court), also known as America's
"secret court." It is this body which grants permission to the
government to wiretap Americans or spy on corporations suspected of
terrorism. As Avery digs deeper, she begins to see a frightening
pattern - and she worries that something far more sinister may be
unfolding inside the nation's third branch of government. With lives at
stake, Avery must race the clock and an unexpected enemy to find the
answer.
Drawn from today's headlines and woven with her unique insider
perspective, Stacey Abrams combines twisting plotlines, wry wit, and
clever puzzles to create another immensely entertaining suspense novel.
