"An explosive thriller with plenty of action, edge-of-your-seat pacing, and an appealing hero."


From Publishers Weekly
Continuing the saga of loner ex-cop Phil Broker from The Price of Blood, Logan, a rising new maestro of suspense, explores the inner workings of the Federal Witness Protection Program in this crackerjack new spellbinder featuring dirty money, compulsion and revenge. When St. Paul, Minn., fading star reporter Tom James, a down-on-his-luck gambler, receives an anonymous tip that once-charismatic cop Keith Angland is on the take with the mob, the trail leads James to Angland's abused wife, Caren, who has decided to seek witness protection and turn over her husband's ill-gotten stash of $2 million in big bills and an incriminating videotape. (Caren is also Broker's ex.) While driving Caren to Broker's backwoods retreat, James persuades her to hide the tape and cash as he obsesses on stealing the loot for himself. An ensuing dispute with Angland at Broker's cabin provides James the opportunity to commit a convenient murder. Accusing Angland of the deed, James demands that the feds give him a new identity in exchange for the tape. The enthralling yarn becomes a cat-and-mouse game as Broker tries to locate James. Virtually seamless, the prose mesmerizes with intelligent contrasts between the monastic single-father hero and the obsessive-compulsive villain. The ingenious plot and cast of well-fleshed-out charactersAincluding a Russian Mafia czar and a sexy editorAcontinue to mark Logan as a standout in the genre. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Entertainment Weekly
"As character-driven a thriller as you're likely to find. Logan makes strong use of his setting, a Minnesota as physically and spirtually glacial as THE ICE STORM's Connecticut wasteland...[a] story of the chilling desperation that turns a normal heart to crime."


From Kirkus Reviews
A crackerjack thriller and a second appearance for Phil Broker (The Price of Blood, 1997), tough ex-cop, hard-bitten Vietnam vet, and serious daddy. Major Nina Pryce is away on an overseas assignment, so Broker is left in sole charge of herand his14-month-old daughter. But that's okay, because Broker likes living in babylanduntil that day when the unforeseeable happens and the outside world comes crashing in. Broker gets a phone call from his former wife Caren. Shes in St. Paul, and though Broker lives way up there in the Minnesota woods just south of the Canadian border, she's on fire to make the drive just to talk to him. The subject, it turns out, is Keith, her current husband, who was once Broker's friend and police force bossnot to mention being the man who ended Broker's marriage by luring Caren away. Now Keith's got himself buried in trouble, Caren says, and she desperately needs Broker to help dig him out. Broker knows how he ought to respond, but the knight-errantry bred in his bones makes his answer sound like an offer of hospitality. Then, when Caren shows up, she's not alone but has along with her one Tom James, a bitter, disappointed, on-the-way-down reporter whos along to track a storyat first. Soon enough, however, he sees the opportunity to make a fantasy come alive. What does he want? Well, to be someone else altogetherspecifically, Danny Storey, the endlessly resourceful, profoundly amoral protagonist of his own unfinished whodunit. How his chance presents itself, and the bizarre way James seizes it, are what provide the spine of a story replete with intrigue, chases, secret agendas, and bloody murder. Weapon to hand, baby on his hip, Broker acts as unwilling catalyst. Logan can plot. And write. And what he serves up here is a satisfying throwback to the kind of suspense novel where complex people matter more than high-tech machines. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.



"A crackerjack thriller...satisfying."



"Readers will be hanging on to theedge of their seats until the final page."

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The Big Law's intricate mechanics are set in motion by one fatal choice: Broker's naive ex-wife Caren decides to blow the whistle on her feckless husband, Keith Angland, a St. Paul cop who's moonlighting as an informant for the Chicago mob. Unwisely for her, she confides in Tom James, a disaffected reporter nursing dreams of the perfect crime. Seeing a way out of his dead-end life and into his dreams, Tom cajoles Caren into entrusting him with the suitcase full of greenbacks the mob had paid her informant husband. When Caren is killed, Tom frames Angland, absconds with the suitcase, runs to the FBI (known to its employees as the Big Law), and wangles himself a berth in the Witness Protection Program. Only Broker senses something amiss in Tom's testimony, and he sets out to find the truth. But to do that, he must find Tom, who has the Big Law and a big suitcase full of cash on his side.

SYNOPSIS

The Big Law, a gripping and stylish page-turner about one man's heroic effort to hunt down a killer sheltered unwittingly by the FBI -- a.k.a. the Big Law. Starring the brooding Phil Broker of The Price of Blood fame, The Big Law offers authentic insider information about the FBI's celebrated Witness Protection Program, and tells a crafty story in the process.

FROM THE CRITICS

Entertainment Weekly

As character-driven a thriller as you're likely to find. Logan makes strong use of his setting, a Minnesota as physically and spirtually glacial as The Ice Storm's Connecticut wasteland...[a] story of the chilling desperation that turns a normal heart to crime.

Chicago Tribune

One of the best new thriller writers is back with a twisty offering involving bad cops, ex-wives, sleazy newspaper reporters and the witness-protection program...that leave[s] readers on the edge of their seats. If he were a boxer, he'd be a heavyweight, and definitely a contender.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Readers will be hanging on to theedge of their seats until the final page.

Minneapolis Star Tribune

[Chuck] Logan demonstrates his ability to create the appealing and appalling characters essential for conflict in the thriller genre. He has also perfected his penchant for delivering a surprise punch. The Big Law proves that he richly deserves the accolades he received for his earlier thrillers, The Price of Blood and Hunter's Moon

Minneapolis Star-Tribune