Beschreibung des Verlags
Covert CIA ops officer Vanessa Pierson has dedicated her career to capturing one man: Bhoot, the world’s most notorious nuclear arms dealer. That mission has been impeded by the murders of her assets, who were betrayed by a mole within her own agency. When she narrowly escapes death during a devastating explosion at the Louvre, Vanessa immediately suspects that Bhoot was the architect of the brazen terrorist attack. But when a previously unknown militant group claims responsibility for the bombing and promises even greater carnage, she is forced to rethink her initial assumptions—especially when Bhoot himself contacts her to deny responsibility and confirm her suspicions that a miniaturized nuclear device may have fallen into hands more dangerous than his own. Of course, Vanessa knows Bhoot can’t be trusted. But she begins to fear that a new and even greater threat to the world’s fragile balance of power may have emerged.
As Vanessa’s investigation leads her ever closer to the identity of the mole and the real terrorists’ plans, she finds herself drawn against all her better instincts into a perilous alliance with one of the world’s most dangerous criminals—a man who has become her darkest obsession . . . and perhaps her savior.
Moving swiftly from Paris, to Amsterdam, to Venice, to Istanbul, Burned is a nerve-shattering, intricately woven thriller about the mission to capture a brilliant and elusive mastermind—and an exhilarating new chapter in the Vanessa Pierson saga.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
An overly familiar story line mars Plame and Lovett's second novel featuring CIA agent Vanessa Pierson. Vanessa, who works for the CIA's counterproliferation division, has an appointment to meet an asset, Farid, outside the Louvre in Paris. Farid could help her catch the international terrorist Bhoot, who eluded her in 2013's Blowback. Instead of Farid, Vanessa spots a suicide bomber just before he blows himself up. Many bystanders are killed or injured, but not Vanessa. Later, Bhoot contacts her to claim that another organization was behind the explosion. Her path to determining whether Bhoot is being truthful follows well-trod terrain, including a mole hunt and a torrid relationship with a colleague that she endeavors to keep secret. Readers may be disappointed that Plame, who served in the same CIA unit as Vanessa, provides the kind of insider details to be found in any standard spy thriller.
