Zero Sum

Zero Sum

Russell Blake

Thriller / Fiction / Mystery

 This is the omnibus version containing the 3 volumes of the trilogy. Present Day Wall Street. Where intelligence agencies and the financial industry are strange bedfellows, and the two worlds are often intertwined in disturbing ways.  In this chillingly plausible, controversial scenario of a military/industrial/financial complex run amok, Zero Sum pits Dr. Steven Archer Cross against powerful financier Nicholas Griffen in a conflict that raises troubling questions about our markets and our government.  Racing against the clock in a chase that spans continents, one man's battle to expose the Machiavellian machinations of a ruthless Wall Street marauder forces him into a financial jungle populated by every variety of unscrupulous sociopath - rogue intelligence agencies, Russian mafia oligarchs, drug cartels and terrorist networks.  As a white-collar game of chess transitions into a lethal real world cage-fight, Steven finds himself in a deadly showdown, where hunters can quickly become the hunted and blood is the ultimate currency.  Zero Sum is the first novel featuring Dr. Steven Archer Cross  ++++  Q & A for Zero Sum  Question: Where did the idea for Zero Sum come from?  RB: I thought the inside scoop of how a Wall Street pump and dump works would be a great framework for a thriller. The innate conspiracy begs to be told, and I also wanted to give some background on how the market actually functions.  Q: Zero Sum offers readers a look behind the curtain on Wall Street's dark side. Do you think there's much of an audience for that?  RB: With the current financial crisis & the emerging awareness that things are badly broken in the regulatory & law enforcement scheme, I think the novel's timely. Its depiction of Wall Street predators with their pet politicians, regulators & media cronies is spot on. I've found readers are fascinated once they understand it all.  Q: Zero Sum paints a picture of Wall Street that's at odds with the sanitized image in the media. Have you gotten any flack because of it?  RB: There's definitely a segment of the financial industry that would prefer nobody reads the book. The parasites that run the schemes described in it are alive & well & doing it every day, relying on the public's ignorance to prosper. There are some annoyed players who want this read about as much as they want a 60 Minutes crew at their office. It's a controversial story, & I'm not making any friends telling it.  Q: Your characters seem real, especially the Wall Street villain, intelligence operatives & mob goons. Are these based in fact?  RB: A good fiction author blends truth & fiction to the point where you aren't sure where the story starts & the facts leave off. Let's just say that the characters & scenarios that seem real, are likely that vivid & believable for a reason.  Q: What authors do you read & which have most influenced you?  RB: I grew up on Ludlum. Forsyth. Harris, Grisham. Fans of those authors will find my writing's similar - Bourne, Day of the Jackal, The Firm.  +  Zero Sum features Dr. Steven Archer Cross, from The Voynich Cypher**
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BLACK Is Back

BLACK Is Back

Russell Blake

Thriller / Fiction / Mystery

In this second installment in the acclaimed BLACK series, Artemus Black, Hollywood PI to the stars, dives into the rap music scene to stop a killer - with often disastrous and humorous results. Fans of hard-boiled detective fiction from Elmore Leonard, Michael Connelly and Lawrence Block will enjoy Black's trials and tribulations, all delivered with a tongue-in-cheek cynicism that's uniquely Russell Blake. +++ Q&A with Russell Blake Q: Another BLACK novel. How is this different than the first in the series, BLACK? RB: Part of my goal in penning these tomes is to poke fun at the entertainment industry. In the first one, the film industry, in this, the rap music industry. In the forthcoming installment, I'll skewer the modeling biz, and then reality TV. It's probably just the people I know and my sense of humor, but I find the self-importance and hypocrisy in show biz worthy of mockery, and delight in doing my part to rib it. So different set of circumstances, different mystery, and more character development of Black and his entourage. Q: Aren't you worried about offending anyone with these books? RB: Offending? Not in the least. After 30 novels, I've found that there will always be someone who is offended by whatever you put out, someone who will always hate it and rate it terribly or who has an axe to grind, so you can't worry about it. These novels are actually easier because I'm pretty sure who they'll offend, so at least there's some precision to it. Q: How much more BLACK to do you see in your future? RB: I could keep writing these forever. I'll probably slow production to one a year after the first three or four, because I have to be in a very specific mood to write 'em - completely different than, say, when I write an adventure thriller or one of my Assassin or JET novels. I have to be smirking and feeling snarky and amused by the folly of my fellow man, and that requires that I have some time to follow the news and popular culture. Which I have little of, mostly due to my production schedule. So I'll write 'em as they come to me, and God help us all.**Review**USA Today Bestselling Author As Seen in The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, and The Times!* "A sadistically good writer." *- The Kindle Book Review "Russell Blake writes with a brisk intensity and pulse-pounding power. Jump in and hang on for a nonstop thrill ride." - Scott Nicholson, Liquid Fear "Blake at his best!" - Steven Konkoly, Black Flagged Redux, Black Flagged, The Jakarta PandemicAbout the AuthorFeatured in The Wall Street Journal, The Times, and The Chicago Tribune, Russell Blake is The NY Times and USA Today bestselling author of over forty novels, including Fatal Exchange, The Geronimo Breach, Zero Sum, King of Swords, Night of the Assassin, Revenge of the Assassin, Return of the Assassin, Blood of the Assassin, Requiem for the Assassin, Rage of the Assassin, The Delphi Chronicle trilogy, The Voynich Cypher, Silver Justice, JET, JET - Ops Files, JET - Ops Files: Terror Alert, JET II - Betrayal, JET III - Vengeance, JET IV - Reckoning, JET V - Legacy, JET VI - Justice, JET VII - Sanctuary, JET VIII - Survival, JET IX - Escape, JET X - Incarceration, Upon A Pale Horse, BLACK, BLACK Is Back, BLACK Is The New Black, BLACK To Reality, BLACK In The Box, Deadly Calm, Ramsey's Gold,and Emerald Buddha. Non-fiction includes the international bestseller An Angel With Fur (animal biography) and How To Sell A Gazillion eBooks In No Time (even if drunk, high or incarcerated), a parody of all things writing-related. Blake is co-author of The Eye of Heaven and The Solomon Curse, with legendary author Clive Cussler. Blake's novels have been translated into German, Spanish, Bulgarian, and Czech. Blake writes under the moniker R.E. Blake in the NA/YA/Contemporary Romance genres. Novels include Less Than Nothing, More Than Anything, and Best Of Everything. Having resided in Mexico for a dozen years, Blake enjoys his dogs, fishing, boating, tequila and writing, while battling world domination by clowns. His thoughts, such as they are, can be found at his blog: RussellBlake.com
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The Manuscript

The Manuscript

Russell Blake

Thriller / Fiction / Mystery

The Delphi Chronicle is a serial trilogy - a story that unfolds over three installments, with each continuing in the next episode, usually with a cliffhanger ending, on all but the last installment. This first book, The Manuscript, chronicles the saga of NY private eye Michael Derrigan, as he unwittingly comes into possession of a manuscript that will change the world order if its secrets are aired. Clandestine factions of the U.S. government will do anything to keep the story buried, & a trail of butchery follows Derrigan as he races for his life in a chase that spans from New York, to Mexico, to Havana. An epic roller-coaster ride of a thriller, The Delphi Chronicle's unflinching & often disturbing twists & turns question the nature of reality & of the integrity of our governments in a post-modern world of lies, deceit and betrayal. +++Q & A with bestselling author Russell Blake.Q: The Delphi Chronicle posits a troubling & plausible conspiracy. Where did you get the idea?Russell Blake: The idea stemmed from the title. I was originally going to call it The Pegasus File, & I'd conceptualized a cool cover, so I googled it to confirm there weren't any other books with that name. The original conspiracy was much tamer than what I wound up with after that search. I had the idea of a literary agent getting a manuscript detailing a shocking scheme, but I hadn't defined what it was, exactly. From that search came this conspiracy, & I have to admit I considered toning it down, because it scared even me. So readers? This is fiction, OK? And U.S. government? No need to send a wet team after me. We all understand it's fictional. As in, an invention, not real. That's my official position. Readers can decide how plausible the invention is for themselves. Some will hate it, as it portrays the U.S. government in a negative light.Q: Why write it as a trilogy?RB: It would have been a long single volume if I'd tried to squeeze it all into one book. Given the success I saw with the Zero Sum trilogy, I wanted to do another one, & this was just naturally written in three volumes, although I think most will get the first one, & then buy the specially-priced bundle of Books 2 & 3 if they're interested in following the story to its thrilling conclusion (wink wink).Q: How do your novels compare to the work of your peers?RB: I think they're faster paced than most. I try to catapult readers through a series of twists & turns at such aggressive velocity they're left gasping by the end. And I dislike books where I can see the ending coming a third of the way through. Just hate that. I try to write racing, intelligent thrillers that don't pander & aren't formulaic. All have gotten raves, so I'm fooling at least some of the people most of the time...Q: Part of Delphi unfolds in Mexico. Any particular reason?RB: I live in Mexico. Have for almost a decade. Modern Mexico is very different than portrayed by the U.S. media. Many parts are indistinguishable from cities in the U.S. Strip malls, high rises, melting-pot racial integration, etc. It's not burros & cactus & sombreros. One of the things I find fascinating is how different it is than my expectations when I moved here, & I try to impart that. I don't see many novels that are set in modern Mexico, & most I've read are caricatures of the truth. Mission bells, white-garbed peasants, mariachis, stereotypes. I try to imbue my fiction with reality, not some Hollywood portrayal of the country based on a snapshot from the 1950s. I think readers will find that distinction interesting, as do I.Q: You're prolific. What's your secret?RB: All I do is write. And I have a lot of stories floating in my head. I have been spending a lot of time getting them out onto paper (or more accurately, pixels). I think readers would do well to read Night of the Assassin and King of Swords for a synthesized version of my style. But there will be plenty more to come.Review"A sadistically good writer." - The Kindle Book Review*"Russell Blake writes with a brisk intensity and pulse-pounding power. Jump in and hang on for a nonstop thrill ride." - Scott Nicholson, Liquid Fear"Blake has never failed to deliver an intelligent, exquisitely paced thriller, packed with unforgettable characters, devious intrigue and immersive detail. He has emerged as the most consistently satisfying writer on the thriller scene."* - Steven Konkoly, bestselling author of Black Flagged, Black Flagged Redux and The Jakarta PandemicAbout the AuthorRussell Blake was named one of the most popular indie novelists of 2012 and is the bestselling author of seventeen novels, including the thrillers Fatal Exchange, The Geronimo Breach, Zero Sum, King of Swords, Night of the Assassin, Revenge of the Assassin, Return of the Assassin, The Delphi Chronicle trilogy, The Voynich Cypher, Silver Justice, JET, JET II - Betrayal and JET III - Vengeance. Non-fiction includes the international bestseller An Angel With Fur (animal biography) and How To Sell A Gazillion eBooks In No Time (even if drunk, high or incarcerated), a parody of all things writing-related. Blake lives in Mexico and enjoys his dogs, fishing, boating, tequila and writing, while battling world domination by clowns.
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Blood of the Assassin

Blood of the Assassin

Russell Blake

Thriller / Fiction / Mystery

A German hit man has targeted a world leader for execution. In a high octane race against the clock, an unlikely alliance must track and stop the assassin before he can carry out his unthinkable scheme. The fifth of the bestselling Assassin novels, Blood of the Assassin can be read as a stand-alone novel or as the continuation of the series.+++Q&A with bestselling author Russell BlakeQ: How is Blood of the Assassin different than the other Assassin books?RB: I wrote it so that it could be read by a someone who is new to my work, and unfamiliar with the prior books. In much the same way Da Vinci Code was the second in that series but was a satisfying read on its own, I wanted to try the same thing with Blood - a sequel that someone could start with knowing little or nothing about its predecessors. Having said that, it's also consistent with the prior Assassin novels, so those who have read the series will find that it fits snugly in place.Q: So would you suggest new readers start here?RB: Sure. That's the whole idea. I think that this book is a perfect example of my storytelling, pacing, character development, and plotting, and I'm confident that new readers will find it engaging and satisfying.Q: This volume features a lot more of Captain Cruz than the last ones.RB: Yes, I wanted him to have a central role, and explore his character more. Just as I wanted to flesh out El Rey in greater detail, and create a more nuanced story. It's also by far the longest of the Assassin books, even after rigorous and ruthless editing.Q: So El Rey, the Mexican super-assassin, also features prominently.RB: For the same reason. I wanted to let him grow - give him a broader range. I'm particularly satisfied with how this effort turned out. El Rey fans will find everything they've grown to love or hate about him here, but with an evolving perspective on life. And I thought it would be fascinating to have one super-assassin hunting another. I think it wound up working well. But readers will be the ultimate judges...Review"A sadistically good writer." - The Kindle Book Review"Russell Blake writes with a brisk intensity and pulse-pounding power. Jump in and hang on for a nonstop thrill ride." - Scott Nicholson, Liquid Fear"Blake at his best!" - Steven Konkoly, Black Flagged Redux, Black Flagged, The Jakarta Pandemic * *About the AuthorRussell Blake is the bestselling author of twenty novels, including the thrillers Fatal Exchange, The Geronimo Breach, Zero Sum, King of Swords, Night of the Assassin, Revenge of the Assassin, Return of the Assassin, Blood of the Assassin, The Delphi Chronicle trilogy, The Voynich Cypher, Silver Justice, JET, JET II - Betrayal, JET III - Vengeance, JET IV - Reckoning, and JET V - Legacy. Non-fiction includes the international bestseller An Angel With Fur (animal biography) and How To Sell A Gazillion eBooks In No Time (even if drunk, high or incarcerated), a parody of all things writing-related. Blake lives in Mexico and enjoys his dogs, fishing, boating, tequila and writing, while battling world domination by clowns.
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BLACK Is the New Black

BLACK Is the New Black

Russell Blake

Thriller / Fiction / Mystery

When Artemus Black is hired to investigate a series of suspicious accidents at LA's most prestigious modeling agency, he quickly discovers that brooding pouts and mascara can be as dangerous as guns or bombs. From LA to Mexico to Tahoe to NY, the story pokes fun at the world of high fashion as Black races to discover who's killing the models...**Review**USA Today Bestselling Author As Seen in The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, and The Times!* "A sadistically good writer." *- The Kindle Book Review "Russell Blake writes with a brisk intensity and pulse-pounding power. Jump in and hang on for a nonstop thrill ride." - Scott Nicholson, Liquid Fear "Blake at his best!" - Steven Konkoly, Black Flagged Redux, Black Flagged, The Jakarta PandemicAbout the AuthorFeatured in The Wall Street Journal, The Times, and The Chicago Tribune, Russell Blake is The NY Times and USA Today bestselling author of over forty novels, including Fatal Exchange, The Geronimo Breach, Zero Sum, King of Swords, Night of the Assassin, Revenge of the Assassin, Return of the Assassin, Blood of the Assassin, Requiem for the Assassin, Rage of the Assassin, The Delphi Chronicle trilogy, The Voynich Cypher, Silver Justice, JET, JET - Ops Files, JET - Ops Files: Terror Alert, JET II - Betrayal, JET III - Vengeance, JET IV - Reckoning, JET V - Legacy, JET VI - Justice, JET VII - Sanctuary, JET VIII - Survival, JET IX - Escape, JET X - Incarceration, Upon A Pale Horse, BLACK, BLACK Is Back, BLACK Is The New Black, BLACK To Reality, BLACK In The Box, Deadly Calm, Ramsey's Gold,and Emerald Buddha. Non-fiction includes the international bestseller An Angel With Fur (animal biography) and How To Sell A Gazillion eBooks In No Time (even if drunk, high or incarcerated), a parody of all things writing-related. Blake is co-author of The Eye of Heaven and The Solomon Curse, with legendary author Clive Cussler. Blake's novels have been translated into German, Spanish, Bulgarian, and Czech. Blake writes under the moniker R.E. Blake in the NA/YA/Contemporary Romance genres. Novels include Less Than Nothing, More Than Anything, and Best Of Everything. Having resided in Mexico for a dozen years, Blake enjoys his dogs, fishing, boating, tequila and writing, while battling world domination by clowns. His thoughts, such as they are, can be found at his blog: RussellBlake.com
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