The Blackjack Conspiracy
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
David Kent, the acclaimed author of The Mesa Conspiracy, is back with an explosive new novel from the files of Department Thirty -- a secret government agency that erases the identities of top-level criminals in exchange for the kind of information people would kill for.
Alex Bridge is not the usual suspect. The young, recently married, pregnant musician has been accused of embezzling millions of dollars from her employer, a giant media conglomerate. Even worse, an FBI agent investigating the embezzlement has just been murdered -- and all the evidence points to Alex. Enter Faith Kelly of Department Thirty. A newly promoted case officer and former deputy U.S. marshal, Faith offers Alex full protection in exchange for her testimony about her employer's financial misdealings. The problem is: Faith and Alex are up against a vast conspiracy that goes far deeper than a corporate accounting scandal. Its roots reach back more than a century, to a notorious frontier massacre in Oklahoma Territory. It thrives to this day in the highest levels of American justice. And trying to expose it is the biggest gamble of Faith Kelly's career. Because the stakes are life or death -- and the game is fixed....
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
When the U.S. government's mysterious Department Thirty offers immunity and a new identity to Alex Bridge, a pregnant widow accused of embezzlement and murder, in exchange for information on the illegal dealings of the corporation she's accused of stealing from, Alex swears she's innocent and is the victim of a setup. Faith Kelly, a new case officer, slowly comes to believe Alex. Faith eventually uncovers a conspiracy that stretches back to the 1890s and reaches into the highest levels of the present-day U.S. judicial system. Kent (The Mesa Conspiracy) grounds his tale in a true historical event and provides some nice twists and turns, but what raises this thriller above the mundane is the villain, Isaac Smith, who uses whatever it takes blackmail, innuendo, implications in crimes to tear his targets' lives apart from the inside out. Smith's inventive machinations more than compensate for formulaic characterization and awkward dialogue.