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Putting it all on the line to rescue his kidnapped son pits counterspy Alex Hawke against Russian President Vladimir Putin in this action-packed thriller from New York Times bestselling author Ted Bell.On a ski vacation in the Swiss Alps high above St. Moritz, Alex Hawke and his young son, Alexei, are thrust into danger when the tram carrying them to the top of the mountain bursts into flame, separating the two. Before he can reach Alexei, the boy is snatched from the burning cable car by unknown assailants in a helicopter.Meanwhile, high above the skies of France, Vladimir Putin is aboard his presidential jet after escaping a bloodless coup in the Kremlin. When two flight attendants collapse and slip into unconsciousness, the Russian leader realizes the danger isn't over. Killing the pilots, he grabs a parachute, steps out of the plane . . . and disappears.Hawke has led his share of dangerous assignments, but none with stakes this high. To save his son, he summons his trusted colleagues, Chief Inspector of Scotland Yard Ambrose Congreve, former U.S. Navy SEAL Stokley Jones, Jr., and recruits a crack Hostage Rescue Team - a group of elite soldiers of fortune known as "Thunder & Lighting." Before they can devise a rescue plan, Hawke must figure out who took his boy - and why. An operative who has fought antagonists around the globe, Hawke has made many enemies; one in particular may hold the key to finding Alexei before it's too late.But an unexpected threat complicates their mission. Making his way to "Falcon's Lair," the former Nazi complex created for Hitler, Putin is amassing an impressive armory that he intends to use for his triumphant return to Moscow.Only one man can smash the Russian president's plan for domination - a master counterspy who will cross every line to save his son . . . and maybe save the world itself in the bargain.
About the Author
Overkill, my 10th spy thriller in the celebrated Lord Alexander Hawke series (HarperCollins) was published on May 1, 2018. It is on the New York Times Bestseller list at #14. I am currently working in the 11th Alex Hawke novel. Stay tuned for updates and the pub date.In Overkill, Hawke's limits are tested in a do-or-die showdown with his erstwhile friend, now lethal enemy, Vladimir Putin. In a battle that spans the globe from Siberia to Switzerland, from L.A. to London, from the Bahamas to Bermuda, Hawke races to find and rescue his young son, Alexei, who mysteriously disappears in a horrific Christmas Day ski gondola accident in St. Moritz. All the while engaging Putin in a Battle Royale to prevent the unstable Russian president from realizing his "Goldfinger" dreams of an armed invasion of Switzerland. This, by way of stealing all the gold buried in the Swiss Alps to finance his dreams or returning to power atop the Kremlin!Along the way, Hawke encounters a man who will forever redefine what it means to be a villain in anAlex Hawke spy thriller. A man named Mr. Smith, who, if looks could kill, resembles no one so much as the late actor Sam Shepard. The resemblance stops there. Smith, a former rodeo star out of West Texas, has a checkered past. After serving two tours in Afghanistan as an Army Ranger out of Ft. Bragg, the winner of two Silver Stars is recruited by CIA and posted to Berlin as a political assassin. There he marries a Russian woman whose death under mysterious circumstances results in Smith's abrupt departure from the Agency - the circumstances involve decapitation. And, he tells the presiding judge, "It wasn't any crime of passion your honor. I've been wanting to kill me a woman ever since I can remember." This then, is the psychopath Putin hires sics on Hawke, and prevent him from interfering in any way with his dreams of glory. Mr. Smith will be haunting your nightmares long after you close the book on him ... I have always had an itch to travel the world - after graduating college and a brief but dull desk job in the family bank, I moved to Europe to become a writer and bounced around Italy and France, and Rome, where I was cast as a Cinecitta Cowboy in a spaghetti western that was ultimately never made. Eventually I made it back to the States and New York, starting a career in advertising, hitting my pinnacle as Vice-Chairman of the Board and World-Wide Creative Director of Young & Rubicam, one of the world's largest advertising agencies. But a call to become a writer, borne in the third grade when I was 8 years old, had never waned. I left my 'Madman' career in 2001, trading New York for Palm Beach, where I focused on writing fiction. Two years later I published my debut espionage thriller, Hawke. Since then, nine books in the series have landed on the bestseller list, not to mention my two New York Times Bestselling young adult adventure novels Nick of Time and The Time Pirate
