FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Driving along the freeway, Shane Scully glances over and sees Jody Dean, his oldest friend and LAPD colleague, at the wheel of an adjacent car. Why is Scully so surprised? Because it's been two years since Jody committed suicide in the Rampart Division parking lot by blowing his brains out with a service revolver. Shane served as a pallbearer at the funeral." "What Scully will discover is that Jody and five other cops who are supposed to be dead are anything but; originally sent deep undercover to bust an extremely violent criminal network, they have become the LAPD's worst nightmare. Calling themselves the Vikings, they are rogue cops who know how the system works. In order to penetrate the group and set his cover, Scully is supposed to shoot his fiancee, Alexa. The setup goes awry and Shane finds himself looking down at his future wife's body. He is soon driven into the corridors of near-madness and into the bed of an extremely beautiful and utterly ruthless corporate seductress who threatens to destroy his soul." Shane's frightening undercover journey takes him from the embrace of Alexa and his teenage son, Chooch, to the Caribbean Island of Aruba and to the decadence of Colombia's opulent palaces and the desperation of its deadly streets. Sergeant Scully is driven to the psychological brink, his life in the hands of the most dangerous killer he's ever known - his closest childhood friend.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Readers willing to check their disbelief at the door will enjoy this latest over-the-top thriller by Cannell (The Tin Collectors). It's been three years since LAPD cop Shane Scully's best friend and fellow cop Jody Dean blew his brains out so what does it mean when Shane spots Jody driving in the next lane on the freeway? Shane's lover, Alexa Hamilton, herself a star in the LAPD, is skeptical of the sighting partly because Shane is undergoing psychiatric treatment until they find her boss dead in a faked suicide with a strange tattoo on his ankle. The tattoo is the symbol used by the Vikings, a group of brutal rogue cops in Jody's unit who were kicked off the force. A two-way radio at Sheperd's home leads Shane to Jody's hiding place, and it turns out he's involved in a lot more than just a rogue gang. Shane stumbles into a huge money-laundering conspiracy involving the cops, Colombian drug cartels and Big Tobacco. But in order to win Jody's trust and save his own life, Shane must betray Alexa. The action intensifies as the rogues, with Shane along with them undercover, face peril trying to keep ahead of murderous drug lords while the bodies pile up. Solid plotting with nail-biting suspense and multiple surprises keep the reader guessing and sweating right up to the cinematic ending. As the creator of such TV series as The Rockford Files and The A Team, Cannell has a knack for character and a bent for drama that will satisfy even the most jaded thrill lover. 10-city author tour. (Jan.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Sergeant Shane Scully is back from the best-selling The Tin Collection with a big problem: he spots an old friend and colleague who supposedly committed suicide. It seems that there's a bunch of cops running around who went deep undercover and promptly went bad. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

AudioFile

LAPD Sergeant Shane Scully is fresh off a case for which his girlfriend, Alexa, a rising star in the department, received the Medal of Valor while he received a psychiatric evaluation. When Shane runs into his best friend, who committed suicide two years previously, he sets in motion an investigation that will lead to a money-laundering scheme involving crooked cops, American tobacco shipments, and South American drug lords. The fast pace of this rollicking drama is hampered by poor sound quality. Dick Hill's high, breathy female voices are sufficient without making them overly soft. Hill has a wonderful knack for accents, but the overall quality of the production suffers when the volume drops at crucial moments. E.J.F. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews