Red Star Falling

by Steve Berry, Grant Blackwood Narrated by Scott Brick

Overview

From*New York Times*bestselling authors Steve Berry and Grant Blackwood comes an action-packed adventure: in the waning days of the Cold War, Luke Daniels embarks on a quest in search of the legendary library of Ivan the Terrible-the unlikely key to ending a looming threat orbiting two hundred miles above the earth.*

Wrapping up his latest assignment for the Magellan Billet, Luke Daniels*receives*a surprise visit from the head of a former-CIA operation named Sommerhaus*-*a failed attempt to assemble an espionage network within the Ukraine on the eve of the Russian invasion. *Sommerhaus ranks high on Luke's list of painful regrets for it was during this mission that his friend, CIA case officer John Vince, was captured by Russian operatives and*supposedly*executed. *But Luke is provided some shocking news. *Vince is alive, in failing health, locked behind the walls of Russia's brutal Solovetsky Island prison, and has a critical message he'll give to no one but Luke. *Needing no further convincing Luke vows to bring Vince home. *
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However, just as he manages to extract his friend from prison Vince tragically dies and his final words are rambling and incoherent.* Just bits and pieces.* But enough to plunge Luke into a hunt for something lost since the 15th century.* The legendary library of the first Tsar of All Russia, Ivan the Terrible. *
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Within that priceless collection of rare manuscripts is the key to unraveling a modern-day cipher and stopping a secret Soviet satellite program that still exists. *But Luke is not the only one on the trail.* Others, both inside and out of Russia, want the library for a totally different reason - to re-start the Red Star program and finally unleash its destructive potential.* Luke's mission is clear.* Find the lost library, solve the puzzle, and prevent Red Star falling.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

06/10/2024

The second entry in Berry and Blackwood’s Luke Daniels series (after The 9th Man) is a paint-by-numbers disappointment. Daniels, fresh off a secret mission for the justice department, is approached by the CIA with intriguing news: John Vince, Daniels’s missing-and-feared-dead partner from a prior operation in Ukraine, is thought to be alive. Meanwhile, former Russian president Aleksei Delov fears that current Russian dictator Konstantin Franko has plans to reconquer the former Soviet republics. Aleksei, who’s dying of brain cancer, intends to resurrect Red Star, a dormant Cold War–era satellite-based nuclear weapon, to destroy the Kremlin from space. Daniels sets off to rescue Vince from a secret island gulag, then to locate one of the Red Star program’s designers, who points him toward a manuscript from the lost library of Ivan the Terrible that contains codes to deactivate the device. The historical details feel tacked-on, the gunfights are perfunctory, most of the protagonist’s obstacles are easily overcome with a phone call, and there’s precious little comeuppance for the bad guys. Fans will hope the authors’ next collaboration is a return to form. Agent: Simon Lipskar, Writers House. (June)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940159185556
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	06/11/2024
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	200,271

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