Law of Gravity - Hardcover

Horn, Stephen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060194413 ISBN 13: 9780060194413

Publisher: Harper, 2002

Synopsis

From the author of the New York Times bestseller In Her Defense comes a riveting new thriller of betrayal and redemption in the nation's capital.

Philip Barkley had come far enough in Washington to know where those proverbial bodies were buried, but not so far that he'd lie about it. In the capital, that was no-man's-land, and his fall from grace was swift.

When personal tragedy accelerates his downward spiral, all that remains is his integrity, and it's the price of a fresh start. The disappearance of Senate Intelligence Committee aide Martin Green indicates a breach of national security. Senator Warren Young, the party's best chance to keep the White House, needs a credible report that the missing man was no spy. Barkley is required to oversee the investigation and deliver the "right" result.

As the case progresses, the signs grow more troubling, and even an FBI agent isn't what she seems. The pursuit of Green leads across generations, a trail of deception and murder that began with a woman's fall from a Bronx rooftop almost fifty years earlier.

Barkley's odyssey finally brings him to the door of a retired detective haunted by a case he never solved. Together, the two men seek justice -- and their own renewal.

About this title

Review:

Phillip Barkley, the disillusioned protagonist of this nifty political thriller, has been sidelined as an investigator at the Justice Department since he blew the whistle on a fundraising scandal on Capitol Hill. About to chuck his pretense of a job and head to the West Coast to restart his life, he's still grieving the death of his daughter when Martin Green, the aide to a presidential hopeful, goes missing in what might be the kind of breach of national security that could destroy Warren Young's hopes for higher office. When Green's body is found, Phillip is assigned to work with an ambitious young FBI agent who's too politically naive to understand that she and Barkley are supposed to close the case before it can taint Young's campaign, not find out who framed Green and why. But whoever it is that doesn't think they've gotten the message will do whatever's necessary to keep Phillip from stumbling on the same truth that got Green killed--including killing again. Double-dealing abounds in this well-written, fast-paced story, which has as many twists and turns as the road to the White House. --Jane Adams

About the Author:

Stephen Horn was born in the Bronx, New York, and received an engineering degree from Rutgers University. He commanded an infantry company of the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam. As a prosecutor in the justice Department's Civil Rights Division, he tried criminal cases and participated in some of the department's most famous investigations, including the killing of four Kent State students by the Ohio National Guard and the assassination of Dr. martin Luther King Jr. Now in the private practice of law, he lives outside Washington, D.C., with his wife and two children. In Her Defense is his first novel.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0060194413
• ISBN 13: 9780060194413
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336