Cirrus@Austlit

'For ten years, Logan Booth served as a contract killer for the CIA – he just never knew it.  The first book in a blockbuster thriller series from Matt Rogers, a million copy bestseller and 'a bright new talent shaking up the genre' (Candice Fox).

'In the twilight of his career, Logan learns he has been a vessel for furthering government interests, not a rogue hitman for a band of vigilantes. The revelation destroys him.

'But when Jorge Romero – an investigative reporter and Logan's oldest friend – is brutally and inexplicably murdered, Logan allows his fury to deliver him from despair.

'With an ally in Alice Mason, a homeless witness with a target on her back, Logan goes to war. Against whom, he isn't sure, but he knows powerful forces are at work behind the scenes.

'Now, to deliver justice, Logan and Alice must confront their demons and win a savage battle that could destroy their lives... even if they survive.'  (Publication summary)

'THE WORST CONDITIONS KING’S EVER FACED…

'It starts the way it always does: with a desire to help.

'Dawn Cates, a retired schoolteacher from Millinocket, drinks her sorrows away at the local tavern. King recognises her. He ran into her his first week in town, and he can’t shake the urge to ask what’s wrong. She watched her dog die in a hit-and-run, and she thinks she knows who did it, but she’s scared…

'Of what?

'King’s not scared of much, and heads east to the coastal town of Lubec to smash heads together. But what he finds eclipses anything he could have imagined, a global operation so vast it defies belief. And to bring the whole empire crashing down, he concocts one of his craziest plans yet.

'From the snow-capped mountains of Maine to the jungles of South America, it’s a descent into madness across the North Atlantic Ocean…'  (Publication summary)

'LUCK DOESN’T LAST FOREVER…

Moving north to wintry Maine, King and Slater get three days of rest before they’re barrelling straight back to Boston with their hearts in their throats.

'Something they left behind has blown up in their faces, and suddenly they’re vulnerable, exposed. It’s all different now; the game has changed. In the shocking aftermath, it’s on them to pick up the pieces, and before long it dawns on them that they’ll need to make a choice.

'They’re caught between a rock and a hard place.

'To keep their families safe, they’ll need to do the unthinkable.

'What they swore they’d never do…' (Publication summary)

'Chasing discomfort in the underbelly of Japan, Dante Jacoby is running from the coward he used to be. A chance encounter with a shopkeeper in Sapporo sets him on a path of destruction through the ranks of the yakuza. Only when he has the chance to stop and draw breath does he receive a distress call from the other side of the world…

'Stefani Pilecki didn’t expect trouble in Romania, but when a mysterious assailant stalks her through Bucharest, she falls back on her contingency plan. She paid a major mafia clan for protection, yet she doesn’t trust them to keep her safe. She doesn’t trust anyone in the world besides Dante, especially when she learns that her murderous stalker burns for revenge.

'But revenge for what?

'The answer lies back in Nepal, buried deep in the murky past of the underground geneticist responsible for Dante’s existence.

'What are the sins of Dr. Adam Benoit?' (Publication summary)

'Dante Jacoby is a slave to the trappings of the modern world. Twenty-six years old and hopelessly addicted to booze, cigarettes, and procrastination, he’s squandered every ounce of his potential. His corporate raider father, Dorian, reaches the end of his tether and cuts Dante off as heir to the Jacoby family fortune. His mother, Fiona, is smarter than her husband: she hasn’t spoken to Dante in months.

'But Dante’s no victim. He knows he brought this on himself.

'Dragged to the gym by a well-intentioned friend in a last-ditch attempt to get him in gear, Dante is used as a guinea pig for a new state-of-the-art machine. He couldn’t care less about “Flash Reflex Training,” but does what he’s told, and heads home to drink himself into oblivion. Hours later he’s on the run, hunted ruthlessly by mercenaries, kept alive by a CIA spook who reveals he tested close to the fastest reaction speed on earth. Square in the crosshairs of foreign agents who don’t want the government utilising his genetic talents, he finds himself sucked into the brutal world of covert operations.

'At least, that’s what he thinks.

'It doesn’t take long to stumble upon a deeper conspiracy and discover nothing is what it seemed…' (Publication summary)

'One afternoon in Boston, everything changes.

'Two abduction attempts on separate sides of the city. A van tries to snatch Tyrell, and two men approach Violetta and Junior in a public park. All at once, it's Code Red. King and Slater don't know who's targeting them, or why, but they have an endless list of enemies from decades spent eviscerating hostiles. It could be anyone. Whoever this rogue force is, they've found a way around every preventative measure.

'They've done what not even the government could do: tracked down Jason King and Will Slater.

'Somehow. Some way.

'And by coming after their families, they've crossed a line you'd have to be clinically insane to step over.'  (Publication summary)

'Heidi Waters, CEO of billion-dollar startup Vitality+, is all the rage in Silicon Valley. Her company’s promises to roll out a neurochemical cure for caffeine-related anxiety are set to change the game, a godsend for anyone who’s ever got the jitters from upsizing their morning coffee order.

'There’s just one problem.

'There is no cure. The product doesn’t work.

'A former acquaintance tips Alexis off to the ten-figure sham, warning that Heidi will do anything to remain in the limelight. After all, it’s often impossible for sociopaths to admit defeat. As Alexis sets off for California, King and Slater follow, embroiling themselves in a criminal web that encompasses a grungy and thuggish mixed-martial-arts gym on the edge of San Francisco.

'Doesn’t take them long to figure out that it’s all connected…'  (Publication summary)

'Will Slater is on the hunt. Three months ago he found a list belonging to drug-slinging gangster Dwayne Griggs. A collection of blackmail, pictures of unspeakable horrors. He’s not going to stop until the men in the photos are dead and buried. He’s already mown through five of them. The sixth poses a problem.

'Kian Grant, an ex-televangelist preacher with murky ties to the Boston underworld, knows something’s coming. Before Slater can even approach his suburban mansion, Grant is gone, fleeing south over the border to the mountain town of Durango. Slater knows exactly what that means. Cartel ties. Doesn’t mean he’ll let it slide.

'If Grant was hoping Slater would let it go, he picked the wrong enemy.

'Slater enlists the only man willing to help wage war with hordes of soulless killers in a barren land, and together he and Jason King set off in relentless pursuit of a grifter who’ll get what’s coming...'  (Publication summary)

'On the same day Jason King is set to become a father, Will Slater sees a twelve-year-old boy on a street corner.

'There's nothing particularly alarming about the kid, but Slater has a sixth sense when someone needs help, so he steps in to protect. After his vicious deliverance of justice enrages half the Boston underworld, Slater meets the whirlwind of chaos head-on. He made the choice to get involved, so he won't stop until the war is won. As King gets swept up in the madness from the supposed safety of Violetta's hospital room, their battles intertwine.

'As the bodies pile and the scum of society seep from the woodwork, Slater confronts hidden truths he'd never learned. This boy he's protecting, this stranger, starts to remind him...

'Family isn't always blood.'  (Publication summary)

'It’s been months since King and Slater faced true physical adversity. Now they’re back in the depths of hell.

'A botched attempt to seize control of the Presidency by a brainwashed intelligence asset leads to the exposure of King and Slater’s location. The shadow world from which they fled has them in their sights, and they’re furious. Going rogue is the gravest sin — wetwork operators aren't afforded the leniency of leaving whenever they please. Examples must be made.

'The hunters are unleashed.

'Black-ops killers cut from the same cloth as King and Slater are given free reign to turn the United States into a hunting ground. It must be demonstrated what happens to dissidents. In the fight of their lives, King, Slater, Violetta and Alexis team with their only contact in the government, tech-wizard Alonzo Romero, to claw tooth and nail to stay alive…'  (Publication summary)

'Something sinister brews deep in rural Wyoming. A movement. A liberation. An uprising.

'Meanwhile, chasing loose ends in Nassau, King and Slater witness an act so shocking they can hardly comprehend it. They realise they have no choice but to investigate, abandoning The Bahamas for the Thunder Basin National Grassland in Wyoming. Their pursuit leads them to a shadowy cult occupying a commune in the isolated heart of the prairie.

'Mother Libertas, led by their mysterious and seductive messiah Maeve Riordan, is like nothing King and Slater have ever seen before, its followers fuelled by a mind-bending drug known only as Bodhi. Alongside Alexis and Violetta, they go down the rabbit hole in order to destroy the cult, but they end up fighting not just for their survival but their sanity…' (Publication summary)

'Hunting the leftover scum from a corrupt judge’s human trafficking operation, King and Slater dig up the name of a bank used to wash all the dirty money leaving Vegas in duffel bags. It brings them to an offshore tax haven — the city of Freeport on Grand Bahama. There, a narcissistic psychopath named Dylan Walcott runs an airtight financial empire, with a smorgasbord of companies under his belt.

'Soon enough King and Slater’s vigilante acts lead them, inevitably, to the downtrodden. They befriend an elderly couple in Freeport, victims of loan sharking in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian. All roads lead to Walcott, who’s cast his predatory gaze over every survivor in need of quick cash across the archipelago. His greed knows no bounds, ruining lives both offshore and in his own backyard.

'Walcott won’t ever back down, and King and Slater must reconsider what they’re getting themselves into.

'When titans clash, the loser falls hard…' (Publication summary)

'In Budapest, Will Slater senses a whisper of the past. He follows the trail down neon-drenched alleys, and then it finds him.

'An old ally resurfaces.

'Jason King returns with devastating news.

'When Slater agrees to help get revenge, they quickly find themselves in a fight they know very little about. Because the world is changing. Technology is rapidly advancing, spiralling toward a total transformation of society. There is a new breed of terrorist — the next step in human evolution. As the truth unravels, the terror amplifies. And by the time it's over, they both find out that there is a fate far, far worse than death...

'Some doors should never be opened.'  (Publication summary)

'Black operations killer Will Slater has a choice to make. Continue putting his life on the line for his country despite the unrest brewing below his stoic exterior … or get out.

'Muster the courage to tell his employers how he feels, accept that he’s rapidly approaching his physical and mental limits, ask permission to step away from his role as a human wrecking ball...

'But he knows they won’t let him out, not with the state secrets swimming around in his head. There's exceptions the upper echelon simply cannot allow. Slater's been a vigilante once. He knows the pain of isolation, the stress that comes from making an enemy of the shadow world.

'And that’s avoiding the real dilemma — if he goes, Jason King must choose between the woman he loves and his brother-in-arms.

'Strap in for a white-knuckle thrill ride you won’t forget…' (Publication summary)

'King and Slater have fought and warred all over the globe, from the desolate plains of the Russian Far East to the extreme altitudes of Nepal. Now, chaos strikes them at home — New York goes dark as malicious code infects the power grid in a devastating cyberattack.

'More than eight million people across the five boroughs. No power, no running water, no sanitation. Food supplies will be exhausted within two days, and there’s no one to restock the shelves. The government has no solution to the myriad problems that come with a major city losing electricity for a prolonged period. All King and Slater know is the code used to knock out critical substations initiated in the heart of Manhattan, and so begins a harrowing race against the clock to get the lights back on before the city plunges into anarchy. They don’t have much time — it doesn’t take long for people to panic.

'As they fight deeper into the bowels of the city, they realise there was a reason New York was targeted. Make as many enemies as they do, and it’s bound to catch up to you eventually…'(Publication summary)

'Raya Parker, the fourteen-year-old daughter of a senior U.S. black-ops official, has vanished along the trail to Everest. Also unaccounted for are one of the loyal bodyguards assigned to protect her, and an unassuming Nepali porter.

'After a prolonged wait for their first contracted assignment, Jason King and Will Slater touch down in Nepal. They’re not exactly thrilled by the task — they assume it’s a routine opportunistic kidnapping. But Raya’s father, Aidan, has done brilliant work for his country, and if his family is at risk he deserves the best.

'Then their grip on the situation spirals violently out of control. Soon enough they’re deep in the throes of terror, battling savage hostiles and the brutality of the terrain itself, and they can’t figure out who the hell is behind any of it. As they ascend higher and higher on the long trail to Gokyo Ri, their energy saps, their bodies crumble, and panic intensifies…

'What use is elite combat training when you can hardly breathe?'(Publication summary)

'Jason King and Will Slater, the two most lethal operatives in government history, are out on their own. They’ve been through their personal journeys into hell, but they unite in New York City as brothers in arms. So begins a vigilante crusade against the city’s morally bankrupt inhabitants.

'But their private war doesn’t last long...

'Sometimes you can’t escape the past, no matter how hard you try. They’re revisited by old government contacts with an agenda, and soon enough they’re fighting tooth and nail to prevent the destabilisation of the entire country. Outnumbered, overwhelmed, beat down, battered, broken — it's just another day at the office.

'Witness the unification of the two baddest men on the planet...' (Publication summary)