“A fast-moving international thriller . . . exciting and all-too plausible” from the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Sting of the Drone (Kirkus Reviews).
With the 2016 presidential election just weeks away, five simultaneous murders on three continents lead to an investigation revealing the recent black-market sale of five nuclear weapons. But who bought them? And what is their intended target?
Washington fears the bombs are timed to explode in major American cities before the election. They call on intelligence expert Ray Bowman to prevent the attack. With the help of a Mossad agent and a female South African intelligence officer, he follows a trail across the world to track down the missing nukes. Along the way, he discovers that the people who now control the bombs intend to do something much more devastating than expected, something that will make nuking a few cities look like a mild attack.
Drawing on his decades of experience at the highest levels of national security, Richard A. Clarke's Pinnacle Event—the Pentagon code for a nuclear threat—is a gripping international thriller told from the rare vantage point of a true Washington insider.
“Clarke delivers an edge-of-your-seat race across the planet that keeps you guessing until the very end.” ―Kyle Mills, New York Times–bestselling author
“Clarke combine[s] real-life intelligence details with . . . narrative drive . . . will please political geeks and actions fans.” ―Booklist
Richard A. Clarke served for thirty years in the United States Government, including an unprecedented ten continuous years as a White House official, assisting three consecutive presidents. In the White House he was Special Assistant to the President for Global Affairs, Special Advisor to the President for Cyberspace, and National Coordinator for Security and Counter-terrorism. Prior to his White House years, he served as a diplomat, including as Assistant Secretary of State, and held other positions in the State Department and the Pentagon.
Since leaving government in 2003, Mr. Clarke has served as an on-air consultant for ABC News for ten years, taught at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government for five years, managed a consulting firm, chaired the Board of Governors of the Middle East Institute, and written several books, both fiction and nonfiction, including the #1 New York Times bestseller Against All Enemies and, most recently, Sting of the Drone.