Choke Point (A Risk Agent Novel) - Hardcover

Pearson, Ridley

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0399158847 ISBN 13: 9780399158841

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2013

Synopsis

When an award-winning foreign journalist reveals the existence of an Amsterdam-based sweatshop known as a “knot shop” that employs and enslaves young girls as laborers, private security firm Rutherford Risk is hired by a philanthropist to find it and shut it down.

David “Sarge” Dulwich, Knox’s former boss from their government contractor days, knows that Knox's cultural knowledge, combat skills, and sympathy for the abused make him right for the job. Joined by Grace Chu, whose more subtle skills for acquiring sensitive tech information help to balance Knox's improvisational style, he heads to Amsterdam in an attempt to dismantle the child labor operation and rescue the girls. In their way is a crime organization that has permeated the neighborhoods with goodwill turning even the victims' parents against their would-be saviors. With enemies around every corner, Knox and Grace can't tell the good from the bad.

About this title

About the Author

Ridley Pearson is the author of more than two dozen novels, including the New York Times bestsellers The Risk Agent, In Harm’s Way, Killer Summer, Killer View and Killer Weekend; the bestselling Lou Boldt crime series; and many books for young readers. He lives with his wife and two daughters, dividing his time between St. Louis, Missouri, and Hailey, Idaho.

Reviews

Rutherford Risk agents Grace Chu and John Knox return (after The Risk Agent, 2012), this time to Amsterdam’s hidden-in-plain-sight underworld, where they’re assigned to shut down a recently exposed child-labor operation. The criminals quickly silence witnesses by kidnapping an escaped child worker and killing an investigating EU official, shielding themselves behind an army of thugs and neighborhood spies. Working without a backup team, Chu and Knox are forced to execute a delicate scheme of tandem undercover operations with each cover dangerously close to outing the next. Unexpectedly, Rutherford Risk decides to pull out, leaving the pair only hours to track the ringleaders and rescue the children. The assignment’s intensity targets both characters’ Achilles heels, and the resulting missteps further the action and highlight humanizing flaws. Knox lowers his guard for a reckless affair, and Chu struggles to establish her position in the male-dominated security industry, while both remain confused by the feelings they each to their partnership. It’s obvious why Pearson has earned praise as thriller grand master; the pacing is flawlessly anxiety ridden, and the investigative elements are richly layered, particularly regarding undercover operations and tech espionage. --Christine Tran

Edition details

• Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0399158847
• ISBN 13: 9780399158841
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416