Trigger Point

by Matthew Glass

Overview

"Glass’s terrific geopolitical thriller packs as much gut-wrenching suspense as any thriller in recent memory . . . Glass expertly assembles the interlocking pieces of his frighteningly prophetic puzzle. This chilling, important novel should be read by all those in charge of our country’s politics and finances."—Publishers Weekly

The year is 2018. The United States has finally emerged from the previous decade’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the economic recession that threatened to tear the country apart. Eighteen months into his first term, President Tom Knowles sees a chance to put his stamp on world affairs when thirty-two American aid workers are massacred in Uganda by a group of rebel partisans. Knowles decides to send in troops into an area that China considers its African sphere of influence. Privately, the message from the Chinese is keep out. Publicly, they can only stand by and watch.

Six weeks later, stock prices on Wall Street are plummeting. Rumors of insolvency haunt a major investment bank, which is leading the rout. When the bank refuses a government bailout, and it becomes known that the Chinese state-run People’s Investment Corporation is its major shareholder, the stock-marker slide turns into a panic. Are United States stock prices being manipulated by the Chinese government? As the president’s team takes drastic action to protect the U.S. economy, the Chinese government strikes back to protect its interests, and the confrontation shifts rapidly from Wall Street to Africa, where American and Chinese forces stand eye to eye. Who will blink first?

An economic and geopolitical thriller from a writer described as the heir to Tom Clancy and Michael Crichton, Trigger Point moves from the Oval Office to Africa to Beijing and paints a terrifying portrait of where we may be headed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802120717
Publisher:	Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Publication date:	02/19/2013
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Matthew Glass remains anonymous—many have speculated that he might be an insider who cannot reveal his true name. The critically acclaimed Ultimatum, his first novel, was published in 2009. He is believed to live somewhere in the United Kingdom.

Editorial Reviews

Set in 2018, Glass’s terrific geopolitical thriller packs as much gut-wrenching suspense as any thriller in recent memory, all without a single serial killer, assassin, female in peril, double agent, or lost religious icon. The Republican president of the U.S., Thomas Knowles, decides that a recent atrocity in Uganda merits intervention by U.S. armed forces. Meanwhile, Ed Grey, the principal partner at Red River Investments, essentially a hedge fund, decides that the present political climate plus a tiny piece of insider information adds up to the possibility of making a nice chunk of money by shorting U.S. banks, one in particular, Fidelian. A series of small mistakes and misapprehensions compound one another until a looming nuclear war threatens the fate of the entire world. Glass (Ultimatum) expertly assembles the interlocking pieces of his frighteningly prophetic puzzle. This chilling, important novel should be read by all those in charge of our country’s politics and finances. Agent: Ben Evans, Oyster Bridge. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

“Glass’s terrific geopolitical thriller packs as much gut-wrenching suspense as any thriller in recent memory, all without a single serial killer, assassin, female in peril, double agent, or lost religious icon. . . . Glass (Ultimatum) expertly assembles the interlocking pieces of his frighteningly prophetic puzzle. This chilling, important novel should be read by all those in charge of our country’s politics and finances.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Glass deftly handles a cast of characters large enough to require note taking, including a to-be-expected belligerent Defense Secretary and an out-of-the-loop but perceptive UN ambassador. The author has penned an action-driven, bite-your-nails, first-rate thriller . . . Fast-paced, emotionally tense and worrisomely true-to-life.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Trigger Point is a thriller for smart people written by a very smart writer. It's The Big Short meets Seven Days in May and Thirteen Days in October. It's a book where Gordon Gekko, not Dr. Strangelove, has his hand on the button. It's a chilling vision of a very plausible, very scary future where Wall Street, the White House, and the Pentagon intersect - and nobody wins and people die. I loved it. Hat's off to Matthew Glass.”—Mike Lawson, author of House Divided

“A thriller set in 2018, Trigger Point imagines the next economic and political crisis that sees the US pitted against China . . . This impressive novel hurtles to a close with a climax that takes it cue from the finale of the Cuban missile crisis 50 years earlier. A solidly entertaining read.”—City AM (UK)

“A sweeping geo-political saga . . . ambitious . . . compellingly plausible.”—The Daily Mail (UK)

“It is not wholly surprising that nobody produced a thriller with a plot to mirror the banking crash of 2008, considering that not even the people most closely involved in that disaster on a global scale had the faintest clue what was going on. In Trigger Point, however, the pseudonymous author Matthew Glass has made an impressive stab at envisioning the next one, and giving it an additional sensationalist twist . . . In the manner of an epic Tom Clancy blockbuster, Glass’s . . . interconnected worlds of finance and politics exist in three (if not four) dimensions. He makes market manipulation as gripping as any psychological heart-stopper.”—The Times (UK)

From the Publisher

In Glass' (Ultimatum, 2009) geo-political thriller, the anarchist Lord's Resistance Army has massacred American aid workers in Uganda, and U.S. President Tom Knowles cannot let the terrorist attack go without response because his party must control the 2018 midterm elections. Knowles intends to chasten the ragtag murderers with bombs and bullets, but the People's Republic of China fears the operation will compromise their petroleum interests in neighboring South Sudan. There's also an East-West dispute over natural-resource–rich South Africa, where the ANC has turned dictatorial. These thorny problems might have been managed with skillful diplomacy, especially since Knowles is an artful politician who has restored confidence in the U.S. economy on a platform of "rectitude and trust," but into the volatile mix comes billionaire speculator Ed Grey, owner of Red River, a diversified investment vehicle. Grey has taken a stock-market "short" position on Fidelian, a rockily capitalized investment bank in which a Chinese sovereign investment fund has a near-majority ownership. Grey's actions sends Fidelian stock into a tailspin, but its board, influenced by the Chinese fund's government agents, rejects a Knowles Administration–brokered rescue buy-out. Fidelian then goes bankrupt, and the entire stock market takes a nose-dive. As Knowles and his advisers try to engage the Chinese in an effort to stabilize the economy, every decision turns counterproductive, partly because the Chinese government is composed of an uneasy triumvirate. Then when U.S. pilots are shot down and held hostage in South Sudan, the miscommunications between the U.S. and China descend into a standoff, and a massive naval battle off the African coast seems imminent. Glass deftly handles a cast of characters large enough to require note taking, including a to-be-expected belligerent Defense Secretary and an out-of-the-loop but perceptive UN ambassador. The author has penned an action-driven, bite-your-nails, first-rate thriller, one best characterized by cribbing from the book itself: "The complexity of trying to link everything up together was mind-boggling." Fast-paced, emotionally tense and worrisomely true-to-life.

Kirkus Reviews