Brilliance

by Marcus Sakey

Overview

A 2013 Edgar Award Nominee for Best Paperback Original

In Wyoming, a little girl reads people’s darkest secrets by the way they fold their arms. In New York, a man sensing patterns in the stock market racks up $300 billion. In Chicago, a woman can go invisible by being where no one is looking. They’re called “brilliants,” and since 1980, one percent of people have been born this way. Nick Cooper is among them; a federal agent, Cooper has gifts rendering him exceptional at hunting terrorists. His latest target may be the most dangerous man alive, a brilliant drenched in blood and intent on provoking civil war. But to catch him, Cooper will have to violate everything he believes in—and betray his own kind.

From Marcus Sakey, “a modern master of suspense” (Chicago Sun-Times) and “one of our best storytellers” (Michael Connelly), comes an adventure that’s at once breakneck thriller and shrewd social commentary; a gripping tale of a world fundamentally different and yet horrifyingly similar to our own, where being born gifted can be a terrible curse.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781611099690
Publisher:	Amazon Publishing
Publication date:	07/16/2013
Series:	Brilliance Trilogy Series , #1
Edition description:	Unabridged
Pages:	452
Sales rank:	743,985
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Marcus Sakey is the author of four novels, three of which are in development as feature films. He has been nominated for or won an Anthony, Barry, Macavity, and ITW Thriller Award.

Editorial Reviews

Sakey (The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes) paints a near future too close for comfort in this stunning thriller, the first in a projected series. About 1% of American children born after 1986—known as abnorms, among other names—are particularly brilliant. A tiny percentage of these are problematic, like Erik Epstein, who understood stock market movements so well he made a fortune that led to the permanent closing of the New York Stock Exchange in 2011. Nick Cooper, a divorced former soldier and a member of Equitable Services, a U.S. government agency with the responsibility of tracking and killing abnorm terrorists, plays a dangerous cat-and-mouse game with the terrorists’ leader, John Smith, and with Shannon Azzi, Smith’s agent. Cooper calls Shannon “the Girl Who Walks Through Walls” for her ability to appear out of nowhere. When Cooper’s children come under threat, he pretends to defect from Equitable Services and reluctantly teams with Shannon. He soon finds his world giddily turning upside down while he sacrifices almost everything for justice and equality. In this parable of democracy’s downfall told in rapid-fire cuts, Sakey upends truths Cooper once thought self-evident, the truths people don’t seem to want any more, preferring instead, “safe lives and nice electronics and full fridges”—nothing less than the tragedy of our times. Agent: Scott Miller, Trident Media Group. (July)

Publishers Weekly

2015-12-07
A deadly agent assigned to track down and terminate dangerous, gifted fugitives finds society's landscape shifting beneath his feet. What if 1 percent of the world's children were born with powerful gifts? How would society adapt to their presence? Those are just some of the big questions behind this visceral, inventive thriller by prolific crime writer Sakey (The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes, 2011, etc.). It's set in a future where non-neurotypical people (demonized as "twists" by society) are threatening the status quo of the "normal" population with their unique gifts. Divorcé Nick Cooper is a noirish government agent who works for the dully named Department of Analysis and Response in a U.S.-funded agency, Equitable Services. His job is to track down criminals who use their gifts for ill. These aren't the well-worn tropes of the superhero genre—for example, Cooper's gift is for predictive analysis, allowing him to see what will happen before it happens and react. It's a vision that offers up bone-crunching violence and a plausible future that is far more terrifying than it might seem on the surface. We first meet Cooper as he's engaging an abnorm in a pitched rooftop chase. Before plunging to her death, she warns Cooper, "You can't stop the future. All you can do is pick a side." The book is ultimately about a standoff between a terrorist who dubs himself "John Smith," Cooper, and a woman, Shannon Azzi, who may or may not be on Smith's side. But in the telling, Sakey pulls off every trick in the book, from staccato dialogue to jaw-dropping plot reversals—he even engages in some worldbuilding by seeding the book with eerie interstitial elements like news reports and advertisements that help portray a world going to hell in real time. It's a dizzying ride in which the novel's execution is as nimble as its freaky ideas. A farsighted thriller about what happens when people really do think differently.

Kirkus Reviews

Brilliance will make you happy from start to finish.” —Entertainment Weekly

“Simply put, Marcus Sakey’s Brilliance saga is awesome.” —Kirkus

“Perfectly titled, this tour-de-force has it all—a credible protagonist, a riveting plot, and enough philosophical questions for a roomful of Jesuits.” —Cleveland Plain-Dealer

“At once mystery, thriller, family saga, and romance…The plot takes many unpredictable twists, the characters are multidimensional, the world quite believable, and the social/political commentary pointed and often chilling.” —Chicago Tribune

“A tightly plotted thriller with classic questions beating in its geeky heart.” —NPR

“Sakey paints a near future too close for comfort in this stunning thriller.” —Publishers Weekly

“Sakey’s premise is utterly compelling; no committed thriller aficionado will be able to set the book down. Brilliance is disturbing—and brilliant.” —Booklist, Starred Review

“One of the finest thrillers I have ever read. A masterpiece.” —CrimeSpree Magazine

“Brilliant.” —Chicago Sun-Times

From the Publisher

The country is on the brink of civil war between the Brilliants, the one percent of the population born with tremendous intellectual gifts, and the Normals, the other 99 percent. U.S. Department of Equitable Services Agent Nick Cooper uses his intellectual superpowers to hunt terrorist Brilliants and protect his family. Narrator Luke Daniels expertly brings this thriller to life. His portrayal of action scenes evokes movie-quality mental images. He skillfully uses the internal dialogue of the protagonist to add depth to Agent Cooper. Deftly applying shadings of character throughout, he simultaneously differentiates characters and imparts their personalities. This is a fast-paced thriller with an exhilarating performance to match. K.C.R. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2013 - AudioFile