New York's Lombardo's Steak House is famous for three reasons - the menu the clientele and now the gruesome murder of an infamous mob lawyer. Effortlessly the assassin slips through the police's fingers and his absence sparks a blaze of accusations about who ordered the hit. Seated at a nearby table reporter Nick Daniels is conducting a once-in-a-lifetime interview with a legendary baseball bad-boy. In the chaos he accidentally captures a key piece of evidence that lands him in the middle of an all-out war between Italian and Russian mafia forces. NYPD captains district attorneys mayoral candidates media kingpins and one shockingly beautiful magazine editor are all pushing their own agendas - on both sides of the law. Back off - or die - is the clear message Nick receives as he investigates for a story of his own. Heedless and perhaps in love with his beautiful editor Nick endures humiliation threats violence and worse in a thriller that overturns every expectation and finishes with the kind of flourish only James Patterson knows.
