Nick Heller Series by Joseph Finder

Nick Heller #2

Amazon.com ReviewProduct Description Joseph Finder introduced Nick Heller, a “private spy” who finds out things powerful people want to keep hidden, to widespread acclaim from the critics and wild enthusiasm from the readers, in the New York Times bestselling novel Vanished. Now, in Buried Secrets, Nick Heller returns, finding himself in the middle of a life-or-death situation that’s both high-profile and intensely personal. Nick has returned to his old home town of Boston to set up his own shop. There he’s urgently summoned by an old family friend. Hedge fund titan Marshall Marcus desperately needs Nick’s help. His teenaged daughter, Alexa, has just been kidnapped. Her abduction was clearly a sophisticated professional job, done with extraordinary precision. Alexa, whom Nick has known since she was young, is now buried alive, held prisoner in an underground crypt, a camera trained on her, her suffering streaming live over the internet. She’s been left with a limited supply of food and water and, if her father doesn’t meet the demands of her shadowy kidnappers, she’ll die. And as Nick begins to probe, he discovers that all is not quite right with Marshall Marcus’s business. He’s being investigated by the FBI, he has a lot of shady investors, his fund is in danger and now he has a lot of powerful enemies who may have the motivation to go after Marcus’s daughter. But to find out who’s holding Alexa Marcus hostage, Nick has to find out why. Once he does, he uncovers an astonishing conspiracy that reaches far beyond anything he could have imagined. And if he’s going to find Alexa in time, he will have to flush out and confront some of his deadliest opponents ever. Amazon Exclusive: Reacher and Heller by Lee Child, author of the bestselling Jack Reacher seriesSome say it was Virginia and some say it was North Carolina but all agree it was a bar. Everyone was drinking domestic beer, except Reacher, who was drinking coffee, and inevitably after an hour the talk turned to guys people knew. Reacher sat quiet, not really part of the group, content to ignore the war stories and the tall tales, until the name Nick Heller came up. Someone said Heller had been one of General Hood's boys, and was therefore suspect, because everyone knew Hood was as bent as a nine dollar bill. Reacher shook his head and spoke for the first time in an hour."No," he said. "Heller worked for Hood, but he was never one of the boys. In fact the smart money said Heller was the guy who would take Hood down one day.""You know Heller?" someone asked."No," Reacher said again. "But I met a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy. And I heard things.""And?""I made a mental note, that's all. Heller's OK.""As good as us?""Better.""Than you too?"Reacher smiled. "He's in the rear view mirror. A little closer than some." "What's he like?""He drives a Land Rover. A thing called a Defender. British. Like a Willys jeep without the frills. That's about all you need to know, right there.""So he's a caveman, like you.""No, that's where it gets complicated. He's very smart with technology. I heard he did a couple of years in D.C. with one of those hi-tech Beltway firms. Like the CIA, but private. Better paid. And more efficient, obviously.""I heard he's in Boston," someone said.Reacher nodded. "There was an issue.""What kind?""Ethical, probably. Heller's got a backbone. Guys like that have problems in D.C.""His dad was a crook.""Financial," Reacher said. "They're all crooks. But Heller's OK.""Would you trust him? You?""Probably," Reacher said. "He's a stand-up guy. Apparently he went to bat for his brother a year or so ago. No reason to, but he did. It was a bad situation, too. But he came out ahead. Some very nice moves. There's a nephew, they say. Weird kid, but Heller does his best. And his mother is still on the scene. Someone once told me a guy who gets along with his mother can't be all bad.""Who told you that?""My mother.""What's he doing in Boston? Private eye?""Not exactly," Reacher said. "More like a private spy. He put together a crew up there. They do the CIA stuff in the office, and then he goes and does the black ops stuff himself. One stop shopping.""Is he a Red Sox fan?""I hope not.""Still, Boston. Quiet up there.""Not very," Reacher said. "Guy I met was talking about a kidnapping. Some rich girl taken out of a night club. Billionaire father, and so on and so forth. Some serious Russians involved. I mean, serious as lung cancer. But it turned out OK.""That was Heller?""Lips are sealed, but I don't see who else it could have been. It was done about ninety percent the same way I would have done it. Which means it had to be Heller. There's no one else that good up there.""You've got competition," someone said.Reacher smiled again. "Human nature," he said. "There are always new guys. Law of averages says some of them will be good.""Would you call him? If you were in trouble in Boston?""I don't have a phone," Reacher said. "But I'd be happy enough if he happened to show up. We could do some damage together, that's for damn sure."Review"A total wow of a read...this is the kind of book you have to look up from, every once in a while, just to collect yourself....Great tension....About as perfectly plotted and suspenseful as possible, this is a tremendous high-wire act." - Booklist (starred review) on Buried Secrets"Crisp, clipped chapters and numerous cliff-hangers propel the action at a breakneck pace. Finder's outstanding writing and engrossing plot twists embellish a captivating summer read." - Library Journal (starred review) on Buried Secrets__"Compulsively readable...opens fast and never slows down....Self-effacing, wry, and ridiculously competent, Heller makes a reasonably engaging protagonist, but this thriller's real star is the suspenseful, expertly paced plot. - Publishers Weekly on Buried Secrets

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Published: 2009