Middle Man: A Lieutenant Rollie Waters Novel

by David Rich

Overview

Recruited into SHADE, an elite, covert group formed by the U.S. military, Rollie Waters must locate and retrieve the countless millions taken from Saddam’s cache during the Iraq War and shipped home in the coffins of dead soldiers. But a sniper attack forces Rollie undercover to solve the riddle of the graves and to apprehend the puppet master behind the plot.

It’s a quest that reaches from the Texas digs of the self-proclaimed King of Kurdistan to the treacherous, labyrinthine streets of Erbil, Iraq, and into the arms of an enigmatic woman with impenetrable motives. Now more spy than soldier, Waters must uncover the man pulling the strings behind a backdrop of murder, deceit, and stolen fortune....

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780525953234
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/29/2013
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.42(w) x 9.12(h) x 1.08(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

David Rich has sold screenplays to most of the major studios and to many production companies in the United States and Europe. He wrote the feature film Renegades starring Kiefer Sutherland and Lou Diamond Phillips. Forsaking Los Angeles for small-town Connecticut, David turned his attention to fiction. Rich is the author of Caravan of Thieves, the first Rollie Waters novel.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Praise for David Rich and the Rollie Waters novels

“Rollie Waters is as tough as Reacher, clever as Bourne, and cool as Bond. I'm addicted.” —Howard Blum, Edgar Award–winning and New York Times bestselling author

“Action, dead bodies, tribal enmities, and blood politics. It all adds up to a fog of menace, and the nimble Rich keeps the reader guessing.”—Booklist

“A rapid fire read, so make sure you’re locked and loaded when you start because two-hundred and ninety-nine pages are going to fly by in this kinetic and compelling burst of a book.”—Craig Johnson, New York Times bestselling author of the Walt Longmire Mysteries

“From the first bullet to the last, Middle Man is Ludlum-style action at its best. After reading it straight through, I'm now looking forward to Lieutenant Rollie Waters' next assignment.”—Ace Atkins, New York Times bestselling author of The Broken Places

“Rich is a film writer, with a firm grip on pacing, always ready to stop and flesh out characters and then to pull a knife and draw a little blood. Waters is the perfect edgy, flawed hero…Above average action-adventure with a touch of noir. This one is good fun.”—Kirkus Reviews

“We follow a labyrinth of violence, deceit, and villainy in which the good guy wins, but the bad guy may reappear later. Lots of fun.”—Library Journal

“Busts right out of the chute and never stops bucking. It’s a rocket ride and a terrific debut that will leave the reader shaken and gasping for air.”—C. J. Box, New York Times bestselling author of The Highway

“A stylish, gritty, breakneck tale, Caravan of Thieves had me guessing the whole way. David Rich’s terse, hard-boiled prose keeps the story moving faster than a wanted criminal. And the ending is a stunner! Highly recommended!”—Christopher Reich, New York Times bestselling author of The Prince of Risk

“First page through to the last, Caravan of Thieves was an incredibly entertaining escape and worth every minute.”—Taylor Stevens, New York Times bestselling author of The Doll

“Everything a reader could desire from a thriller—breakneck pacing, well-rendered action scenes, a vivid setting, a compelling and complex hero, and endless twists. As with the best thrillers, what lifts it above the pack is clean prose and depth of character, a sense that the sins of the past weigh heavily on the present.”—Michael Koryta, Edgar Award–nominated author of The Prophet

“[For] readers with a taste for Bourne-level action.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Builds a labyrinth of deception spanning the deserts of the American Southwest to the deserts of Afghanistan—one part noir thriller, one part father-son tale, and one part adventure saga. Prepare to be ensnared.”—T. Jefferson Parker, national bestselling author of The Famous and the Dead

“Caravan of Thieves has everything a good thriller needs.”—Booklist

“Like le Carré’s A Perfect Spy…Rich tosses in both humor and surprising plot twists.”—Publishers Weekly

Editorial Reviews

USMC Lt. Rollie Waters remains mired in the misdeeds of a greedy and ghoulish cabal in Rich's (Caravan of Thieves, 2012) second action-adventure novel. As the saga begins, the crime uncovered in Thieves is the same but exacerbated. Waters' con-man father, Dan, had uncovered a conspiracy that looted millions of Saddam's dollars after the invasion of Iraq, all supposedly shipped home in caskets of troops killed in action. Dan was murdered by the conspirators, but Waters got revenge. That involvement brought combat veteran Waters to the attention of mysterious Maj. Hensel of SHADE (Shared Defense Executive), an uber-secret spinoff of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Hensel suspects the purloined money is to finance a conspiracy to control Kurd oil resources. Waters, SHADE-assigned to exhume graves to unearth the millions, becomes an assassin's target. The shooting brings Waters' investigation unwelcome FBI attention, and so Henley dresses Waters up as Robert Hewitt, oil speculator, and dispatches him to Houston to meet the self-styled king of Kurdistan. The action moves from Houston to Erbil, Iraq's Kurd stronghold. Waters is pursuing a one-eyed Welshman named Bannion who has supposedly kidnapped Maya, his own ex-wife and the king's daughter. Rich is a film writer, with a firm grip on pacing, always ready to stop and flesh out characters and then to pull a knife and draw a little blood. Waters is the perfect edgy, flawed hero--"loaded up five cylinders for Russian roulette with chivalry, gallantry, righteousness, sincerity and plain old lust"--and Rich's supporting cast is solid. Bannion is Machiavellian evil. Gill, supposedly Bannion's silent muscle, is three layers deep. Pushing credibility is Ethan Williams, a purported hippie drug dealer Waters once rescued in Afghanistan and who is now in Bannion's employ. The adventure unreels in first person from Waters' point of view, and Rich uses a nifty narrative device--Waters' interior dialogue with his dead con-man father--to flesh out the now-you-see-it, now-you-don't machinations of the bad guys. Above-average action-adventure with a touch of noir. This one is good fun.

Kirkus Reviews

Praise for David Rich and the Rollie Waters novels

“Rollie Waters is as tough as Reacher, clever as Bourne, and cool as Bond. I'm addicted.” —Howard Blum, Edgar Award–winning and New York Times bestselling author

“Action, dead bodies, tribal enmities, and blood politics. It all adds up to a fog of menace, and the nimble Rich keeps the reader guessing.”—Booklist

“A rapid fire read, so make sure you’re locked and loaded when you start because two-hundred and ninety-nine pages are going to fly by in this kinetic and compelling burst of a book.”—Craig Johnson, New York Times bestselling author of the Walt Longmire Mysteries

“From the first bullet to the last, Middle Man is Ludlum-style action at its best. After reading it straight through, I'm now looking forward to Lieutenant Rollie Waters' next assignment.”—Ace Atkins, New York Times bestselling author of The Broken Places

“Rich is a film writer, with a firm grip on pacing, always ready to stop and flesh out characters and then to pull a knife and draw a little blood. Waters is the perfect edgy, flawed hero…Above average action-adventure with a touch of noir. This one is good fun.”—Kirkus Reviews

“We follow a labyrinth of violence, deceit, and villainy in which the good guy wins, but the bad guy may reappear later. Lots of fun.”—Library Journal

“Busts right out of the chute and never stops bucking. It’s a rocket ride and a terrific debut that will leave the reader shaken and gasping for air.”—C. J. Box, New York Times bestselling author of The Highway

“A stylish, gritty, breakneck tale, Caravan of Thieves had me guessing the whole way. David Rich’s terse, hard-boiled prose keeps the story moving faster than a wanted criminal. And the ending is a stunner! Highly recommended!”—Christopher Reich, New York Times bestselling author of The Prince of Risk

“First page through to the last, Caravan of Thieves was an incredibly entertaining escape and worth every minute.”—Taylor Stevens, New York Times bestselling author of The Doll

“Everything a reader could desire from a thriller—breakneck pacing, well-rendered action scenes, a vivid setting, a compelling and complex hero, and endless twists. As with the best thrillers, what lifts it above the pack is clean prose and depth of character, a sense that the sins of the past weigh heavily on the present.”—Michael Koryta, Edgar Award–nominated author of The Prophet

“[For] readers with a taste for Bourne-level action.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Builds a labyrinth of deception spanning the deserts of the American Southwest to the deserts of Afghanistan—one part noir thriller, one part father-son tale, and one part adventure saga. Prepare to be ensnared.”—T. Jefferson Parker, national bestselling author of The Famous and the Dead

“Caravan of Thieves has everything a good thriller needs.”—Booklist

“Like le Carré’s A Perfect Spy…Rich tosses in both humor and surprising plot twists.”—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher