Publisher Description
The FBI is on the hunt for a North Korean sleeper agent in this thriller by the author of Quantico Rules, called "a fresh new voice" by Harlan Coben.
FBI agent Puller Monk has been called in to track down a Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece that was recently stolen from a private collector in Washington, DC. But the culprit isn't an ordinary thief; she's a sleeper terrorist—an American who was abducted as an infant, renamed Sung Kim by her North Korean captors, and trained in the deadliest of arts. The National Security Agency (NSA) wants Monk to catch her before she carries out her next diabolical mission.
Working so deep undercover that even the FBI and Monk's girlfriend are kept in the dark, the rogue agent plunges into a game of cat and mouse that could cost him his life—and the lives of many others. But Monk never backs off from a case, and he has his own unorthodox methods of getting the job done. As he moves within the shadows, Monk becomes both hunter and prey in an endgame more chilling than anyone could imagine.
An ex-FBI agent himself, Gene Riehl debuted the Puller Monk series with Quantico Rules, acclaimed as "riveting" by the San Diego Union-Tribune and "good to the last page" by Michael Connelly. Booklist's starred review said, "This is one of those thrillers you genuinely wish wouldn't end. At its center is Puller Monk, FBI agent, compulsive gambler, and accomplished liar. . . . Monk is a strong lead, a believable character full of contradictions and obsessions we've only begun to explore. Further Monk adventures aren't just welcome; they're absolutely necessary."
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The risks in Riehl's follow-up to the successful espionage thriller Quantico Rules are literary as well as cloak-and-dagger. There's a sexy, dangerous villainess, a blonde assassin born Samantha Williamson but now named Sung Kim; the sleeper of the title, she was stolen from America as a child and trained in North Korea in various martial and felonious arts. Series hero FBI agent Puller Monk matches wits with her in an extended game of cat-and-mouse. But Monk's also besieged by serious personal problems, and Riehl devotes equal space to these in the novel. Monk's father finally dies after a long battle with Alzheimer's, and Monk wonders if he's losing his own mind to the same disease. Nevertheless, he accepts a secret assignment to find a priceless stolen painting. The reader knows from the beginning that the heist is the work of Sung Kim, now a killer agent of the dangerous North Korean regime. Indeed, some of the best chapters involve Washington insiders riffing on the current political situation here and abroad. Even Monk's involvement in the top-secret investigation has a stressful personal twist: William, the NSA operative who recruits Monk for the mission, catches him in a delicate moment with lady love Bethany. Could this possibly affect their working relationship? Riehl's second effort has a terrific surprise twist, but it lacks the substance to support the story's more serious concerns.
