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The 9th Man
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2023
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Kirkus Review
A cryptic message sends an intelligence agent hurtling into a turbulent plot with deep roots in American history. When her grandfather Benjamin Stein, a retired Army colonel dying of cancer, starts raving about something called Kronos, Jillian Greenfield Stein emails an anonymous contact on a scrap of paper he'd marked "Kronos" to ask, "Tell me what you know about Kronos." The result is immediate: Somebody with a lot of nefarious connections targets her for death. So she reaches out to her ex-lover Luke Daniels, of the Justice Department's Magellan Billet, who saves her but not her grandfather from a squad sent to execute them both. The killers turn out to be only the first wave of professionals working for ancient fixer Thomas Henry Rowland's security forces under the command of Jack Talley. As their successors make it clear, their real interest isn't in Benjamin Stein's papers or valuables but in a rifle he's supposed to be hiding. And not just any rifle, but one that most readers of a certain age will have heard of and even seen in photographs. Luke's quest to keep Jillian one step ahead of Rowland and Talley's hirelings is stymied by the fact that he doesn't know what Kronos is himself. But he can figure out that Stein's death is linked to retired Secret Service agent Ray Simmons, who killed himself a month ago at age 94. The advanced ages of so many of the parties involved, in fact, provides a prominent clue to the secret Jillian's unearthed, or not quite unearthed. Berry and Blackwood keep the pot boiling vigorously until their final surprise, though savvy fans will have seen this one coming. My country, 'tis of thee, land of conspiracy. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Summary
From New York Times bestselling author of the Cotton Malone series comes a thrilling, action-packed historical adventure that sends Luke Daniels on an international manhunt for the truth about the assassination of President John Kennedy.

Luke Daniels is in London, between assignments with the Magellan Billet, when he receives a frantic call from an old friend. Jillian Stein is in trouble. She made a mistake and now her life may be in danger. She needs Luke's help. Immediately. Racing to Belgium Luke quickly finds that she was right. A shadow team of highly-trained operatives are there on the hunt. Intervening, he finds himself embroiled in a war between two determined sides -- one seeking the truth, the other trying to escape the past -- a war that has already claimed one life and is about to claim more.

Thomas Rowland is a Washington insider, a kingmaker, problem-solver, but also a man with a past. For him everything turns with what happened on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas. What history has recorded is wrong. There is more to the story, much more, and Thomas Rowland is at the center of that terrible reality. But forces are working against him, and Rowland will do anything to keep the world from learning what actually happened on that fateful day, including killing Luke, Jillian and anyone else who might be a threat.

In a race from Belgium, to Luxembourg, to the bayous of Louisiana and the Wyoming wilderness, to a final confrontation in the Bahamas, Luke Daniels confronts a series of shocking truths which not only rewrite history but will forever change his own life -- as he comes face to face with the ninth man.
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