Dark Network: An Imogen Trager Novel

by James McCrone

Overview

Without law, there’s only power. But who’s pulling the strings?

“Baldacci and Meltzer fans will appreciate the plot’s twists…” —Publishers Weekly.
"Gripping and unpredictable” —Midwest Book Review
“A rousing and provocative political thriller…”-Kirkus Review

Imogen Trager, the determined heroine of the “highly suspenseful” thriller, Faithless Elector, returns. Pushed to the edges of the investigation for her conduct during the Faithless Elector plot, she starts digging where no else thinks to look.

She enlists the help of a computer analyst, Trey Kelly. Together, by flipping the script and scrutinizing gaps in the FBI’s data, they find the backdoor no one thought to lock, uncovering the trail of a vast, coordinated group of criminal cells woven into a sinister dark network, with threads leading everywhere.

She'll have to fight against time, the network, and even her own colleagues to stop a conspiracy still bent on stealing the presidency. In the process, she’ll have to confront her own views on what the Constitution is meant to protect and who she’s becoming. Even if she and Trey are successful, what kind of America will remain?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780692797846
Publisher:	Faithless Elector
Publication date:	10/18/2017
Series:	Imogen Trager Novel , #2
Pages:	262
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.55(d)

About the Author

James McCrone has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Washington, in Seattle. He lives in Philadelphia, PA, with his wife and children

Editorial Reviews

10/16/2017
McCrone’s second political thriller featuring FBI agent Imogen Trager builds on the dramatic tension of its predecessor, 2016’s Faithless Elector, in which the tightly contested 2016 presidential campaign seemed to conclude with an electoral college triumph for Democrat Diane Redmond, who had the necessary 271 electoral votes on election night. But the country was thrown into chaos after charges of voter fraud led to electors in three states to switch their support to the Republican, James Christopher, despite his having been widely regarded as having run a “dismayingly incoherent campaign.” Now the country is without a president-elect, and Trager, described by a superior as a “wonk who gets things done,” must deal with a network out to capture the presidency for some powerful special interests. Meanwhile, Trager finds herself in the investigative crosshairs after her personal relationship with a crooked colleague, who died in a gun battle in the last book, comes to light. Baldacci and Meltzer fans will appreciate the plot’s twists and the easy-to-empathize-with lead. (BookLife)

Publishers Weekly

"Gripping and unpredictable...highly recommended for political thriller readers and mystery fans alike." -D. Donovan, Sr. Reviewer, Midwest Book Review

"Baldacci and Meltzer fans will appreciate the plot's twists and the easy-to-empathize-with lead." -Publishers Weekly

"A fast paced, heart pounding political thriller. I loved Dark Network, a fantastic, unpredictable political suspense novel. A must read!" Review, Chick Lit Cafe

"An exciting and tension filled tale that will blow your mind about potential conspiracies, and make you wonder when it all went wrong. Fiction that reads like reality; reality that feels like fiction." -The Review Cafe

From the Publisher

2017-11-09
The FBI races to uncover a complex conspiracy to hijack a presidential election.McCrone's (Faithless Elector, 2016) second installment in the Imogen Trager series picks up where its predecessor left off: a plot to steal the presidency results in the murders of seven electors, in retribution for their refusal to change their votes, and three faithless electors, who were killed in order to silence them. After a chaotic shootout, the assistant director of the FBI languishes in a medically induced coma; professor Duncan Calder (Trager's love interest) is badly wounded; and Thomas Kurtz, an FBI agent complicit in the conspiracy, is dead. There is powerful evidence of electoral fraud in Illinois, and it's likely that when Congress convenes, it will deem the votes of the faithless electors illegitimate. In that case, in accordance with the 12th Amendment, a vote by the House of Representatives will select a new president and one by the Senate, a new vice president, the two possibly from different parties. Both presidential candidates—Republican James Christopher and Democrat Diane Redmond—suggest the other is culpable of fraud, and the public grows violently disillusioned by an increasingly shambolic pantomime of the democratic process. McCrone skillfully depicts a country pushed to the brink: "In this atmosphere, it was growing harder to know what was going on at all, nor what information to trust. The Constitution was straining at the seams." Trager helps the FBI find evidence of two conspiratorial cells—one operating within the bureau and one outside of it. The acting executive assistant director of the FBI, Don Weir, worries that the agency continues to be infiltrated by moles. The author yet again deftly delivers a combination of stirring action and remarkably intricate plot entanglements. And this is a timely and intelligent commentary on the current state of electoral politics in America—a dour sense of voter disenfranchisement in response to dizzyingly ubiquitous corruption. But the plot is sometimes torpidly complex, and despite dutiful synopses of prior events regularly issued, this will be a difficult book to follow for those who haven't read the first.A rousing and provocative political thriller, though the labyrinthine plot can make for an arduous read.

Kirkus Reviews