Mike Ford finds himself utilizing skills from his former life of crime when he helps his brother out of his involvement in stealing a billion-dollar trade secret from the Federal Reserve Bank. - (Baker & Taylor)

Mike Ford finds himself utilizing skills from his former life of crime when he helps his brother out of his involvement in stealing a billion-dollar trade secret from the Federal Reserve Bank in this follow-up to The 500. 75,000 first printing. - (Baker & Taylor)

The author of the national bestseller The 500 returns with a pulse-pounding new thriller--the story of two brothers, billions of dollars, and the heist of a lifetime.

After escaping the corrupt back rooms of Washington, DC, Mike Ford is again playing a dangerous game--and this time the stakes are even higher.

Mike's brother is in over his head in a powerful conspiracy to steal a secret worth billions from the rarely understood, vitally important trading desk at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Trying to bail his brother out, Mike quickly finds himself playing a dangerous game, trapped into planning the heist himself, forced to call on all the skills of his criminal past in order to escape.

In this sharp, fast-paced sequel to The 500, Mike Ford again stars as the cunning and courageous former con man with a big heart, and Matthew Quirk confirms that he is one of the most exciting thriller writers at work today. - (Grand Central Pub)

Matthew Quirk studied history and literature at Harvard College. After graduation, he joined The Atlantic and spent five years at the magazine reporting on a variety of subjects including crime, private military contractors, the opium trade, terrorism prosecutions, and international gangs. Quirk's first novel was The 500, which is currently in development as a major motion picture. He lives in Washington, D.C. - (Grand Central Pub)

Booklist Reviews

*Starred Review* Having barely escaped alive from a corrupt consulting firm (in the blockbuster The 500, 2012), lawyer Mike Ford has established himself as a go-to political fixer in Washington, D.C. But his plan to live a quiet, respectable life is sorely threatened when his older brother, Jack, drags him into a job to steal the Federal Reserve's directive on monetary policy prior to a major announcement, opening up a two-hour window for some serious insider training. Mike, resourceful and well-schooled in cons and grifts from childhood by his ex-con father, plans to blow up the job from the inside until the lives of his fiancée, Annie Clark (daughter of a megarich hedge-fund operator), and his father are threatened. Then it becomes a deadly race to learn who's behind it all—keeping in mind his father's advice to "never bet in another man's game"—and come out of the mess as best he can. Solidly researched, with elements of a technothriller, this is a nonstop, heart-pounding ride in which moral blacks and whites turn gray in "the efficient alignment of power and interests" that is big-time politics. Quirk has another high-powered hit on his hands. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews.

Library Journal Reviews

In Quirk's follow-up to his acclaimed debut thriller, The 500, attorney Mike Ford is again on the run, this time framed for murder and pursued by conspirators who willingly kill to coerce his aid. With Mike as front man, they plan to steal—before its release—the top-secret directive regularly issued by the Federal Reserve to guide U.S. economic policy. Mike's con man father is out of prison but not much help; his untrustworthy brother, Jack, having flubbed his part in the conspiracy, is willing to sacrifice Mike's life to save his own. The father of Mike's fiancée, a wealthy power broker, hates Mike. The female CEO of a security firm wants to help, but her actions threaten to sabotage Mike and Annie's wedding. These problems fade to insignificance when Mike realizes that to survive he will have to do the impossible—gain access to and egress from one of the most secure sites in Washington, DC. VERDICT Sustained by Quirk's research, an engrossing plot, the ever-increasing tension of a deadly cat and mouse game, and high stakes, this page-turner will attract not only fans of such financial-thriller authors as Christopher Reich and Joseph Finder but all those looking for a fun, fast-flowing beach read. [See Prepub Alert, 11/1/13.]—Ron Terpening, Univ. of Arizona, Tucson