The last thing FBI agent Will Brody remembers is the explosion—a thousand shards of glass surfing a lethal shock wave.
He wakes without a scratch.
The building is in ruins. His team is gone. Outside, Chicago is dark. Cars lie abandoned. No planes cross the sky. He’s relieved to spot other people—until he sees they’re carrying machetes.
Welcome to the afterlife.
Claire McCoy stands over the body of Will Brody. As head of an FBI task force, she hasn’t had a decent night’s sleep in weeks. A terrorist has claimed eighteen lives and thrown the nation into panic.
Against this horror, something reckless and beautiful happened. She fell in love . . . with Will Brody.
But the line between life and death is narrower than any of us suspect—and all that matters to Will and Claire is getting back to each other.
From the author of the million-copy bestselling Brilliance Trilogy comes a mind-bending thriller that explores our most haunting and fundamental question:
What if death is just the beginning?
For thirty years humanity struggled to cope with the brilliants, the 1 percent of people born with remarkable gifts. For thirty years we tried to avoid a devastating civil war.
We failed.
The White House is a smoking ruin. Madison Square Garden is an internment camp. In Wyoming, an armed militia of thousands marches toward a final, apocalyptic battle.
Nick Cooper has spent his life fighting for his children and his country. Now, as the world staggers on the edge of ruin, he must risk everything he loves to face his oldest enemy-a brilliant terrorist so driven by his ideals that he will sacrifice humanity's future to achieve them.
The brilliants changed everything. Since 1980, 1% of the world has been born with gifts we’d only dreamed of. The ability to sense a person’s most intimate secrets, or predict the stock market, or move virtually unseen. For thirty years the world has struggled with a growing divide between the exceptional...and the rest of us. Now a terrorist network led by brilliants has crippled three cities. Supermarket shelves stand empty. 911 calls go unanswered. Fanatics are burning people alive. Nick Cooper has always fought to make the world better for his children. As both a brilliant and an advisor to the president of the United States, he’s against everything the terrorists represent. But as America slides toward a devastating civil war, Cooper is forced to play a game he dares not lose—because his opponents have their own vision of a better world. And to reach it, they’re willing to burn this one down. From Marcus Sakey, “the master of the mindful page turner” (Gillian Flynn) and “one of our best storytellers” (Michael Connelly), Book Two of the Brilliance Saga is a relentless thrill ride that will change the way you look at your world—and the people around you.
“A modern master of suspense.” Chicago Sun-Times
“Entirely ingenious.” Gillian Flynn “Genius.” Chicago Tribune
“A brilliant writer.” Huffington Post “One of our best.” Michael Connelly
“This is how immortality gets started.” CBS Sunday Morning
“The kind of story you’ve never read before.” Lee Child
The only sign of life for miles is an empty BMW. Inside the expensive car he finds clothes that fit perfectly, shoes for his tattered feet, a Rolex, and an auto registration in the name of Daniel Hayes, resident of Malibu, California. None of it is familiar. How did he get here? Who is he? Who was he? While he searches for answers, the world searches for him - beginning with the cops that kick in the door of his dingy motel with guns drawn. Lost and alone, the man who might be Daniel Hayes flees into the night. All he remembers is a woman's face, so he sets off for the only place he might find her. The fantasy of her becomes his home, his world, his hope. And maybe, just maybe, the way back to himself. But that raises the most chilling question of all: What will he find when he gets there? PRAISE FOR MARCUS SAKEY & THE TWO DEATHS OF DANIEL HAYES "CONFIRMS MARCUS SAKEY'S PLACE AS ONE OF OUR BEST."-MICHAEL CONNELLY "Sakey writes like a dream, creates characters exactly like people you know, and above all he keeps you turning the pages." -Lee Child "PART DAZZLING CALIFORNIA NOIR, PART DARK AMERICAN ROAD TRIP, PART PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER - AND ENTIRELY INGENIOUS."-GILLIAN FLYNN "AS MUCH AN EXAMINATION OF MORALITY AS IT IS A THRILLER."-PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Alex is failing as a father. Ian keeps dangerous secrets. Jenn is pining for adventure; Mitch is pining for Jenn. Four friends just scraping by, finding comfort in each other and the hope that things will get better. But as their twenties fade in the rearview mirror, none of them are turning out to be who-or where-they hoped. In a time when CEOs steal millions while their employees watch savings dwindle, these four are tired of the honest approach. They've decided to stop waiting and start taking. But a supposedly victimless crime has become a bloody nightmare. People have been killed. Ruthless men pursue them. Tensions they thought were long-extinguished are flaring. As their world unravels, each will have to choose between their life and the lives of others. And for four people pushed to the ragged edge, the only thing more dangerous than the men chasing them might be their best friends.
A family, and the security to enjoy it: That's all Tom and Anna Reed ever wanted. But years of infertility treatments, including four failed attempts at in vitro fertilization, have left them with neither. The emotional and financial costs are straining their marriage and endangering their dreams. Then one night everything changes. Offered a chance at a future they'd almost lost hope in, they seize it. One simple choice. A fairy-tale ending. But Tom and Anna soon realize that fairy tales never come cheap. Their decision puts them square in the path of some ruthless men. Men who have been double-crossed. Men who won't stop until they get revenge. No matter where they find it.
Home from Iraq and still reeling from his discharge, Jason Palmer plans to spend the summer drinking too much and chasing girls. But when his brother is brutally murdered, Jason is all that stands between his eight-year-old nephew and a pair of ruthless killers with a mysterious agenda. As he struggles to protect all that remains of his family, Jason finds himself embroiled in something much larger than a simple quest for justice. Chicago is burning, set ablaze by gang warfare and the passions of wicked men, and the battle for Jason's South Side neighborhood is looking more and more like the war he just left.
Now, in a city where corruption is simply the cost of doing business, where issues of race and class smolder just beneath the surface, Jason will be forced to face the mistakes of yesterday to fight for a better tomorrow. Marcus Sakey fulfills his promise in this dark thriller that probes the underbelly of America's meanest streets-and the costs of our deepest bonds.
