The Final Reckoning
By Sam Bourne
(Harper, Hardcover, 9780061875748, 432pp.)
Publication Date: December 2010
Other Editions of This Title: Mass Market Paperback, Audio Cassette, Compact Disc
Categories: Thrillers, General
 |     |
From the number one international bestselling author of The Righteous Men and The Last Testament comes a chilling thriller about a clandestine brotherhood and a sixty-year-old secret—the last great mystery of World War II.
Tom Byrne has come a long way since his days as an idealistic young lawyer. Now he’ll work for anyone—as long as the money’s right. So when a UN official asks him to take on a dubious job, he accepts. A suspected suicide bomber shot by UN security staff has turned out to be a harmless old man, and Tom must placate the family. But it soon emerges that the victim was not quite the innocent man he seemed to be.
Alongside the dead man’s daughter, Rebecca, Tom discovers a hidden brotherhood united in a worldwide mission that has caused hundreds of unexplained deaths. Pursued by those ready to kill to stop him, Tom must unlock a secret buried for more than sixty years—the last great secret of the Second World War.
Based on the true story of a group of Holocaust survivors who sought revenge for Nazi crimes, The Final Reckoning is an atmospheric, emotionally engaging, and twisting thriller that moves at light speed from the first page to the last.
Sam Bourne is the literary pseudonym of Jonathan Freedland, an award-winning British journalist and broadcaster. He is a weekly columnist for the Guardian (UK), having served as that paper’s Washington correspondent. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, Newsweek, and the New Republic. He is a regular contributor to the Jewish Chronicle (UK) and presents BBC Radio 4’s contemporary history series The Long View.
Bourne is the author of the New York Times and number one UK bestseller The Righteous Men, which has been translated into twenty-eight languages, and The Last Testament. He has also written two nonfiction works, Jacob’s Gift and Bring Home the Revolution. He lives in London with his wife and two children.
“The story, in part inspired by an actual conspiracy, has the tempo of an Indiana Jones movie mixed with the sensibilities of a history book.”
-USA Today
“By alternating between the past and the present, Bourne has crafted a dark and intensely gripping thriller that vividly captures the emotional maelstrom and physical destruction of World War II Europe. His latest will stay with readers long after they have closed the book.”
-Library Journal (starred review)
“Bourne brings some lesser-known history into focus here, integrating brutal descriptions of Nazi terror into his modern-day thriller. . . . His prose is sharp and clear, especially when he’s dealing with history.”
-Booklist
 |
Flight Behavior Barbara Kingsolver Harper |
 |
The Art Forger Barbara Shapiro Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill |
 |
Sweeth Tooth Ian McEwan Nan A. Talese |
 |
The Light Between Oceans ML Steadman Scribner |
