The Kingmaker - Hardcover

Haig, Brian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0446530557 ISBN 13: 9780446530552

Publisher: Warner Books, 2003

Synopsis

In the worst case of treason in U.S. history, General William Morrison has been charged with a breathtaking array of crimes. Oddsmakers give Sean Drummond zero chance of saving his client from a death sentence. However, his obligation runs deeper than simply professional: Morrison's wife, a CIA executive, has begged Sean to save her husband, and Drummond doesn't want to disappoint his old flame. Despite ever-more-damning intelligence leaks that paint Morrison as worse than Bene- dict Arnold, Drummond bulls ahead and comes to suspect that this simple case of treason is actually a chess game being played at the highest levels by the best and brightest-one in which Morrison is merely a pawn.

About this title

About the Author

Brian Haig is the author of two previous novels that feature Sean Drummond- Secret Sanction and Mortal Allies. He lives in Pennington, New Jersey.

Reviews

Military lawyer Sean Drummond, the wiseass hero of Haig's promising new series, ventures into the '90s aftermath of the Cold War this time out. The rollicking, free-swinging attorney is assigned to defend U.S. Army Gen. William Morrison, a Russian specialist accused of being a Soviet spy for 10 years. Drummond doesn't particularly want the job. On a professional level, he dislikes traitors. Personally, he resents the pompous Morrison. Complicating matters further, Drummond still carries a torch for Morrison's sexy wife, who had her pick of the two men years earlier and opted for the one with the higher rank. Despite all the distractions, Drummond hurls himself into the case. The action bounces back and forth in dramatic fashion between Washington, D.C., and Moscow, with Drummond finding nothing but discouragement in both capitals. It is only after two attempts on his life that he begins to suspect that Morrison was framed. Drummond's tireless investigations eventually put him face to face with a man who has been the driving force behind every Russian ruler in the past 30 years: the so-called Kingmaker. Haig's third Drummond adventure (after Mortal Allies) rolls along in high spirits, mixing clever cloak-and-dagger tricks, gutsy heroics and edgy, often humorous dialogue. Drummond at times borders on comic caricature-he personally kills five villains, stabbing one fatally in the eye with a ballpoint pen-yet he is easy to root for and fun to watch in action. Remarkably, his smart-alecky personality, expressed in one wisenheimer comment after another, remains fresh from start to finish.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Sean Drummond, the protagonist of Haig's Secret Sanction (2001) and Mortal Allies [BKL My 1 02], is back--and in good form. Drummond is an attorney with the army's Judge Advocate General's office, and his new assignment is to defend a brigadier general who was the U.S. military attache in the Moscow embassy, now charged with treason. The general's wife is Drummond's former "slumber buddy." Drummond selects a Russian-speaking co-counsel to help him, a young woman with a silver bead in her left nostril and a silver hoop poking out of her navel. There is nothing unique about the plot, but Haig's approach to what is a rather standard story line is entertaining with a capital E . In describing Drummond's ex-lover's father, for example, Haig writes, "I thought I heard him laugh once at a cocktail party, but when I went to investigate, he was choking on a piece of lobster. I rooted for the lobster, incidentally." That kind of sarcastic dialogue and the sharply drawn characters that speak these wonderful lines are sure to delight readers. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

U.S. Army lawyer Maj. Sean Drummond (Mortal Allies; Secret Sanction) returns for a third time in yet another exciting legal thriller, primarily set in Washington, DC, and Moscow. This time, he is called upon to defend Brig. Gen. William T. Morrison, who is charged with murder and treason, along with a host of other things, on behalf of Russia. Helped only by a Russian-speaking punk-rocker female lawyer with more body piercings than the law allows, Drummond is outnumbered and outgunned by the prosecution, led by his legal nemesis Eddie Golden. Worse, his client is a philandering jerk who is obnoxious, arrogant, and otherwise totally unlikable. Then villains who don't know about Drummond's Special Forces background attempt to assassinate him. In addition, Drummond must overcome massive government plots and equally massive cover-ups-topped by a "vacation" in Siberia-before justice is served. Haig seems to get better with each book, and Drummond is a marvelously imperfect hero. For most popular fiction collections.
--Robert Conroy, Warren, MI
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Warner Books
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0446530557
• ISBN 13: 9780446530552
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400