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Kingmaker by Brian Haig β€” book cover
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Kingmaker

by Brian Haig
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Overview

Listen, Drummond, your client betrayed this country in ways too horrible to contemplate....In the history of espionage, there's never been one like him. But Major Sean Drummond never says die. Especially when an old flame begs him to defend her brigadier general husband in the biggest treason case in U.S. history. And even when Drummond is up against the fiercest prosecutor in the Army and fighting two murder charges. With an unconventional and beautiful co-counsel, Drummond plunges into an investigation that will unearth a damning array of secrets and cover-ups-and reveal a master manipulator who doesn't care who or what goes up in flames...as long as Drummond's client burns.

Synopsis

In the worst case of treason in U.S. history, General William Morrison has been charged with a breathtaking array of crimes. Oddsmakers give Sean Drummond zero chance of saving his client from a death sentence.

Publishers Weekly

Military lawyer Sean Drummond, the wiseass hero of Haig's promising new series, ventures into the '90s aftermath of the Cold War this time out. The rollicking, free-swinging attorney is assigned to defend U.S. Army Gen. William Morrison, a Russian specialist accused of being a Soviet spy for 10 years. Drummond doesn't particularly want the job. On a professional level, he dislikes traitors. Personally, he resents the pompous Morrison. Complicating matters further, Drummond still carries a torch for Morrison's sexy wife, who had her pick of the two men years earlier and opted for the one with the higher rank. Despite all the distractions, Drummond hurls himself into the case. The action bounces back and forth in dramatic fashion between Washington, D.C., and Moscow, with Drummond finding nothing but discouragement in both capitals. It is only after two attempts on his life that he begins to suspect that Morrison was framed. Drummond's tireless investigations eventually put him face to face with a man who has been the driving force behind every Russian ruler in the past 30 years: the so-called Kingmaker. Haig's third Drummond adventure (after Mortal Allies) rolls along in high spirits, mixing clever cloak-and-dagger tricks, gutsy heroics and edgy, often humorous dialogue. Drummond at times borders on comic caricature-he personally kills five villains, stabbing one fatally in the eye with a ballpoint pen-yet he is easy to root for and fun to watch in action. Remarkably, his smart-alecky personality, expressed in one wisenheimer comment after another, remains fresh from start to finish. Agent, Luke Janklow, Janklow Nesbit. (Jan. 9) Forecast: Haig's track record, his name (he is the son of former secretary of state Alexander Haig) and ample television, radio and print advertising should help make this a big seller. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

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Editorials

From Barnes & Noble

In his heart of hearts, Sean Drummond knows that he doesn't have a devil's prayer of saving General William Morrison. If even a fraction of the charges against the much-decorated military man are proven, Morrison will be executed as the worst traitor in American history. But a plea from Morrison's wife, an old flame of Drummond's, lures our hero into a case that he can't imagine winning.

Publishers Weekly

Military lawyer Sean Drummond, the wiseass hero of Haig's promising new series, ventures into the '90s aftermath of the Cold War this time out. The rollicking, free-swinging attorney is assigned to defend U.S. Army Gen. William Morrison, a Russian specialist accused of being a Soviet spy for 10 years. Drummond doesn't particularly want the job. On a professional level, he dislikes traitors. Personally, he resents the pompous Morrison. Complicating matters further, Drummond still carries a torch for Morrison's sexy wife, who had her pick of the two men years earlier and opted for the one with the higher rank. Despite all the distractions, Drummond hurls himself into the case. The action bounces back and forth in dramatic fashion between Washington, D.C., and Moscow, with Drummond finding nothing but discouragement in both capitals. It is only after two attempts on his life that he begins to suspect that Morrison was framed. Drummond's tireless investigations eventually put him face to face with a man who has been the driving force behind every Russian ruler in the past 30 years: the so-called Kingmaker. Haig's third Drummond adventure (after Mortal Allies) rolls along in high spirits, mixing clever cloak-and-dagger tricks, gutsy heroics and edgy, often humorous dialogue. Drummond at times borders on comic caricature-he personally kills five villains, stabbing one fatally in the eye with a ballpoint pen-yet he is easy to root for and fun to watch in action. Remarkably, his smart-alecky personality, expressed in one wisenheimer comment after another, remains fresh from start to finish. Agent, Luke Janklow, Janklow Nesbit. (Jan. 9) Forecast: Haig's track record, his name (he is the son of former secretary of state Alexander Haig) and ample television, radio and print advertising should help make this a big seller. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

U.S. Army lawyer Maj. Sean Drummond (Mortal Allies; Secret Sanction) returns for a third time in yet another exciting legal thriller, primarily set in Washington, DC, and Moscow. This time, he is called upon to defend Brig. Gen. William T. Morrison, who is charged with murder and treason, along with a host of other things, on behalf of Russia. Helped only by a Russian-speaking punk-rocker female lawyer with more body piercings than the law allows, Drummond is outnumbered and outgunned by the prosecution, led by his legal nemesis Eddie Golden. Worse, his client is a philandering jerk who is obnoxious, arrogant, and otherwise totally unlikable. Then villains who don't know about Drummond's Special Forces background attempt to assassinate him. In addition, Drummond must overcome massive government plots and equally massive cover-ups-topped by a "vacation" in Siberia-before justice is served. Haig seems to get better with each book, and Drummond is a marvelously imperfect hero. For most popular fiction collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/15/02.]-Robert Conroy, Warren, MI Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Old-hat spies tell shopworn lies in this third outing from a thrillermeister who's done much better (Secret Sanction, 2001, etc.). JAG (Judge Advocate General) lawyer Major Sean Drummond, who has sparkled in the past, strives manfully here, but it's hard for the razzle to dazzle (even with the help of some pretty good one-liners) when the plotting's caught in the iron grip of formula. For this series, Drummond gets lumbered with a case that has career-breaker written all over it-involving Brigadier General William T. Morrison, with whom Drummond has a history. For a brief period the two were brothers in arms and they once shared a combat assignment-concluded brilliantly-but not the accruing glory, since sneaky Morrison hogged full credit. Seasoned bureaucratic warrior that he is, Drummond could probably have forgiven him that trespass-nobody's perfect-except that Morrison then stole Drummond's college sweetheart and all-time dream girl, the staggeringly beautiful ("alabaster skin . . . scorching blue eyes . . . ") Mary Steele Morrison. Now, the mighty having plummeted-in a fall from grace matched only by Benedict Arnold's-arrogant, fast-tracking General Morrison, former US military attachΓ© in the Moscow embassy, has been arrested, handcuffed, and hauled off to the jail in Fort Leavenworth, charged with high crimes and misdemeanors, including (gulp!) treason. And, could you believe, he wants Drummond to represent him. For his part, Drummond sees in this an enticing danger named Major Eddie Golden, "the Babe Ruth" of JAG prosecutors, who makes a practice of distributing emblematic baseball bats to attorneys he's brutalized. Drummond, the unhappy owner of a pair of these, hungers for anothergo-round with the glittering Golden. At first the evidence against Morrison seems overwhelming (natch), but, bulldog-like, Drummond hangs in until the jerrybuilt conspiracies begin their inevitable crumbling-and the you'll-never-guess-who suspects their fall. A letdown. Not terrible-just that more was expected.

Book Details

Published
July 1, 2003
Publisher
Grand Central Publishing
Pages
496
Format
Mass Market Paperback
ISBN
9780446612906

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