**Two brothers, millions of dollars--and the heist of a lifetime
**After escaping the corrupt back rooms of Washington, DC, Mike Ford is again playing a dangerous game--this time the stakes are even higher.
Mike's brother is in over his head in a powerful conspiracy to steal a secret worth billions of dollars from the little-known but unbelievably influential trading desk at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. In an effort to help, Mike soon finds himself trapped by the dangerous men in charge--and forced to call on all the skills of his criminal past in order to escape.
In this sharp, pulse-pounding sequel to THE 500, Mike Ford again stars as the cunning and courageous ex-con man with a big heart, and Matthew Quirk confirms that he is one of the most exciting thriller writers at work today.
**
From Booklist
Starred Review Having barely escaped alive from a corrupt consulting firm (in the blockbuster The 500, 2012), lawyer Mike Ford has established himself as a go-to political fixer in Washington, D.C. But his plan to live a quiet, respectable life is sorely threatened when his older brother, Jack, drags him into a job to steal the Federal Reserveโs directive on monetary policy prior to a major announcement, opening up a two-hour window for some serious insider training. Mike, resourceful and well-schooled in cons and grifts from childhood by his ex-con father, plans to blow up the job from the inside until the lives of his fiancรฉe, Annie Clark (daughter of a megarich hedge-fund operator), and his father are threatened. Then it becomes a deadly race to learn whoโs behind it allโkeeping in mind his fatherโs advice to โnever bet in another manโs gameโโand come out of the mess as best he can. Solidly researched, with elements of a technothriller, this is a nonstop, heart-pounding ride in which moral blacks and whites turn gray in โthe efficient alignment of power and interestsโ that is big-time politics. Quirk has another high-powered hit on his hands. --Michele Leber
Review
Praise for *THE 500: *
"Gripping...the action never lets up for a second, and the pages cannot be turned fast enough."
---Associated Press
"This ripping yarn springs and snaps along like a row of wolf traps."
---*Newsday *
"Quirk is such an expert in escalation that, like a frog in a pot of boiling water, you'll be done before you even realize it."โ*Entertainment Weekly*