Elmore Leonard meets Robert Ludlum in a rollicking comedic thriller set in 1985 from acclaimed author Ace Atkins, in which a suburban teen suspects his mom’s new boyfriend is the ultimate bad guy—a KGB agent.
It’s 1985, what will soon become known as ‘The Year of the Spy,'' and fourteen-year-old Peter Bennett is convinced his mom’s new boyfriend is a Russian agent. ‘Gary’ isn’t in the phone book, has an unidentifiable European accent, and keeps a gun in the glove box of his convertible Porsche. Peter thinks Gary only wants to get close to his mom because she works at Scientific Atlanta, a lab with big government contracts. But who is going to believe him? He’s just a kid into BMX and MTV.
But after another woman who works at the lab is killed, Peter recruits an unlikely pair of allies—a has-been pulp writer and muckraker named Dennis Hotchner and his drag performer buddy and heavy, Jackie Demure. Both soon become the target of an unhinged Russian hitman (Is it Gary? Maybe!) with a serious Phil Collins obsession.
Meanwhile, Sylvia Weaver, a young, Black FBI agent, investigates Scientific Atlanta in the wake of the employee’s murder and discovers a nest of Russian spies in the Southern ‘city too busy to hate.’ Little does she know her investigation is being thwarted by a seriously compromised colleague in Washington, D.C., who is in league with a lovesick, hypochondriac KGB defector who is playing both sides of the Cold War to his benefit.
As Ronald Reagan and Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev prepare for a historic nuclear summit in Geneva, what happens in Atlanta might change the course of the Cold War, the twentieth century, and Peter Bennett’s freshman year of high school.
Genre: Mystery
It’s 1985, what will soon become known as ‘The Year of the Spy,'' and fourteen-year-old Peter Bennett is convinced his mom’s new boyfriend is a Russian agent. ‘Gary’ isn’t in the phone book, has an unidentifiable European accent, and keeps a gun in the glove box of his convertible Porsche. Peter thinks Gary only wants to get close to his mom because she works at Scientific Atlanta, a lab with big government contracts. But who is going to believe him? He’s just a kid into BMX and MTV.
But after another woman who works at the lab is killed, Peter recruits an unlikely pair of allies—a has-been pulp writer and muckraker named Dennis Hotchner and his drag performer buddy and heavy, Jackie Demure. Both soon become the target of an unhinged Russian hitman (Is it Gary? Maybe!) with a serious Phil Collins obsession.
Meanwhile, Sylvia Weaver, a young, Black FBI agent, investigates Scientific Atlanta in the wake of the employee’s murder and discovers a nest of Russian spies in the Southern ‘city too busy to hate.’ Little does she know her investigation is being thwarted by a seriously compromised colleague in Washington, D.C., who is in league with a lovesick, hypochondriac KGB defector who is playing both sides of the Cold War to his benefit.
As Ronald Reagan and Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev prepare for a historic nuclear summit in Geneva, what happens in Atlanta might change the course of the Cold War, the twentieth century, and Peter Bennett’s freshman year of high school.
Genre: Mystery
Praise for this book
"Thriller writers are a dime a dozen, but Atkins' skills at character and dialogue make him priceless." - Linwood Barclay
"Ace Atkins' Everybody Wants to Rule the World was an absolute joy to read. A thriller that is as hilarious as it is intense, containing a kaleidoscope of diverse and well-drawn characters, and infused with a sense of place and time that exquisitely capture the zeitgeist of the last decade of the Cold War. This thrill-ride of a novel would make one hell of a movie!" - Mark Greaney
"Anyone who has read Ace Atkins knows he's diabolically talented, but his latest goes beyond crackling wit and whip-smart storytelling. Don't Let the Devil Ride combines meaty questions about the lies we build to protect ourselves - and what happens when those lies collapse - with a masterfully crafted plot and seductive Southern setting to create a novel that sings." - Don Winslow
"Ace Atkins' Everybody Wants to Rule the World was an absolute joy to read. A thriller that is as hilarious as it is intense, containing a kaleidoscope of diverse and well-drawn characters, and infused with a sense of place and time that exquisitely capture the zeitgeist of the last decade of the Cold War. This thrill-ride of a novel would make one hell of a movie!" - Mark Greaney
"Anyone who has read Ace Atkins knows he's diabolically talented, but his latest goes beyond crackling wit and whip-smart storytelling. Don't Let the Devil Ride combines meaty questions about the lies we build to protect ourselves - and what happens when those lies collapse - with a masterfully crafted plot and seductive Southern setting to create a novel that sings." - Don Winslow
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Used availability for Ace Atkins's Everybody Wants to Rule the World