The Bricklayer

by Noah Boyd

Overview

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING NINA DOBREV AND AARON ECKHART

“Terrific pace, surprises galore….Move over Jack Reacher, here comes The Bricklayer.” —James Patterson

Someone will kill and kill again if it means he can fool the FBI . . .

Ex-FBI agent Steve Vail is more than happy to leave the Bureau behind, but they aren’t through with him yet. A group called the Rubaco Pentad is holding the FBI up for buckets of cash, with an escalating body count as leverage. The Feds are stumped. Some signs point to a corrupt agent while others lead to completely dead ends. Vail has built a reputation for being able to find anybody anywhere. Now, with no official ties, he’s the perfect choice for this under-the-radar investigation. But as Vail well knows, going after people who use killing as a bargaining chip is asking for the worst kind of trouble.

The Bricklayer is a gripping debut of an iconic new hero, and is brought to us with the startling authenticity only a real insider can provide. Noah Boyd has created a mind-twisting maze of clues inside a nonstop thrill ride that is guaranteed to keep readers on edge until the final page.

"Non-stop action and non-stop authenticity make this a real winner." —Lee Child

“Noah Boyd brings his FBI experience to this dazzling thriller.” —Patricia Cornwell

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061827020
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	08/31/2010
Series:	Steve Vail Novels , #1
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	4.10(w) x 7.40(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Noah Boyd is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Bricklayer and a former FBI agent who spent more than twenty years working some of the Bureau's toughest investigations, including the Green River Killer case and the Highland Park Strangler case (which he's credited with solving). He currently works on cold cases when he's not writing. He lives in New England.

Editorial Reviews

Pseudonymous Boyd makes a blistering debut with the tale of a disgraced former agent who rescues the FBI from a murderous extortionist. First the Rubaco Pentad slays a tabloid TV reporter who'd done an expose of the Bureau, demands $1 million or it will kill an unnamed politician, and executes the FBI agent carrying a dummy package with no money. Then it murders a Utah state senator (also a prominent FBI critic) and this time wants $2 million; the agent and the package-now containing real cash-disappear en route to the drop. When the Pentad kills a defense lawyer (also known for his anti-Bureau stance), Assistant Director Don Kaulcrick brings in Steve Vail, fired five years ago for refusing to give evidence against an incompetent superior because it would have led to the release of a cop-killer. Presently working as a bricklayer in Chicago, Vail agrees to join forces with the FBI so long as he's not reinstated and not paid and can have the assistance of new Deputy Assistant Director Kate Bannon. Learning that Vail's on the case, the Pentad demands that he deliver the third package: a duffel bag containing $3 million. Vail jumps through every hoop and survives every booby trap; the payoff gets delivered, and he gathers some telltale clues that set him on the Pentad's trail. Deflecting the advances of Bannon and a Los Angeles ADA, he focuses manfully on the case, realizing at length that virtually all the evidence has been planted, "and we're still being played like a whorehouse piano." Boyd, identified by his publisher as a former FBI agent, provides the inevitable cat-and-mouse game between Vail and the Pentad's chief with enough jolts to create a legion of fans for this novel, trumpetedas the start of a series. Highly formulaic-the Rube Goldberg plot makes Jeffery Deaver's twisty thrillers seem models of realism-but irresistible red meat for connoisseurs of action thrillers.

Kirkus Reviews