Inside Man (Sam Capra Series #4)

by Jeff Abbott

Overview

Following Adrenaline, The Last Minute, and Downfall, Jeff Abbott returns with the next riveting novel in the award-winning New York Times bestselling Sam Capra series.

Sam Capra's friend Steve has been murdered, shot dead in the rain outside of his Miami bar. The only lead: a mysterious, beautiful stranger Steve tried to protect. To avenge his friend, Sam goes undercover into the Varelas, one of Miami's most prominent and dangerous families.

Now on the inside, playing a part where one wrong move means death, Sam faces a powerful, unstable tycoon intent on dividing his business empire between his three very different children, who each may hold murderous secrets of their own.

Sam is relentlessly drawn into this family's intense drama, amplifying painful echoes of his own shattered relationships as a son, brother, father, and husband. And just when he thinks he understands why the family is self-destructing, he discovers a lethal secret so shocking that the Varelas cannot let him walk away alive . . .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781455528462
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	07/01/2014
Series:	Sam Capra Series , #4
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	480
Sales rank:	72,345
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Jeff Abbott is the New York Times bestselling author of fourteen novels. He is the winner of an International Thriller Writers Award (for the Sam Capra thriller The Last Minute) and is a three-time nominee for the Edgar award. He lives in Austin with his family. You can visit his website at www.JeffAbbott.com.

Editorial Reviews

05/15/2014
The fourth thriller in Abbott's Sam Capra series (Adrenaline; The Last Minute; Downfall) starts with the murder of Sam's friend, Steve, a security agent employed by Cordelia Varela to trace $10 million in cash that her father, sole owner of a global transportation company, had offered to her charity. As in Shakespeare's King Lear, the crusty old man, Rey (King) Varela (note the jumbled acronym in the last four letters) is fading fast. Aided by his blind assistant, Kent, he intends to divide his Miami-based empire between Cordelia, Galo (her older half brother), and their stepsister, Zhanna. Another son, Edwin, kidnapped several years earlier, is presumed dead. Sam, an ex-CIA special projects man himself, makes his way into this maze seeking both to help Cordelia and avenge Steve's death. VERDICT Series fans will overlook the occasional awkward prose, the world-weariness of the 26-year-old protagonist, the mistaken allusions tied to the overriding theme of a labyrinth (where twice Perseus, rather than Theseus, is said to have killed the Minotaur), and the sketchy descriptions (favorite adjectives include "nice," "stunning," and "striking"), but others may find it a slow go until Abbott hits his stride a third of the way in. Then the pace picks up, intriguing complications ensue, and the action leads to a terrific conclusion. [See Prepub Alert, 1/10/14.]—Ron Terpening, Univ. of Arizona, Tucson

Library Journal

★ 05/05/2014
Thriller Award–winner Abbott draws on Shakespeare’s King Lear for his outstanding fourth Sam Capra novel (after 2013’s Downfall). When Steve Robles, an old friend of Sam’s, is shot dead outside the Miami bar that Sam runs, Sam, a former CIA agent, resolves to find Steve’s killer. Under the name Sam Chevalier, Sam goes “inside” the luxurious Varela family compound in Puerto Rico, where Steve was working a security job for frightened Cordelia Varela. Meanwhile, Cordelia’s father, patriarch Rey Varela, is dividing his shipping empire—which is not entirely legitimate—among his three children, playing one against the other. Sam breaks laws to serve the good and rescue the innocent, while resisting Rey’s efforts to sweep him into a nefarious international scheme. Abbott injects enough of Sam’s back story to make his intricate plot believable, judiciously spices his tale with tasteful but usually interrupted romance, and convincingly makes Sam a genuine contemporary “chevalier.” Agent: Peter Ginsberg, Curtis Brown. (July)

Publishers Weekly

"One of the best ongoing series in the thriller genre. Readers will be hooked from the start...INSIDE MAN jumps into the action right away, and the last 100 pages are downright terrifying. Abbott has a gift for creating great character-driven thrillers, and readers will clamor for more, especially given the cliffhanger ending."—Associated Press

"Thriller Award-winner Abbott draws on Shakespeare's King Lear for his outstanding fourth Sam Capra novel...Abbott injects enough of Sam's back story to make his intricate plot believable, judiciously spices his tale with tasteful but usually interrupted romance, and convincingly makes Sam a genuine contemporary 'chevalier.'"—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

"INSIDE MAN is a tightly controlled roller coaster of a narrative, goosing the reader forward with almost every paragraph."—Austin Chronicle

"Abbott's Sam Capra series represents some of the finest writing on the market, and the fact that it's squarely in the thriller genre-which means the story is fast and intense, and the stakes are stratospheric-makes Abbott one of the best writers out there, as his "who's who" string of awards (Edgar, Thriller, Anthony, Agatha, Macavity) can attest to...With dead friends, mysterious women, snappy dialogue and clever twists, this is stellar work from an accomplished, sophisticated writer at the top of his game."

—J. T. Ellison, New York Times bestselling author of When Shadows Fall

"Lots of action and plot twists make this a literary roller coaster."—USA Today

"Exciting and imaginative, full of action and intrigue. Abbott's writing raises the pulse, taking readers on a wild adventure."—Free-Lance Star

From the Publisher

"Abbott knows how to slowly ratchet up the tension while maintaining great characters and terrific plot twists...The Sam Capra series gets better with each outing, and Downfall is a "must read" for the action-thriller fan."

Associated Press on Downfall

"Like Adrenaline, this is a fast-paced thriller with a likable, morally conflicted hero. Sam is in a difficult situation, seemingly forced to commit murder to find his son, and--this is a testament to Abbott's skills as a storyteller--we really don't know whether he will follow through. The book ends on an upbeat note, giving Sam a certain amount of closure. Still, let's hope Abbott isn't through with Sam. He's a very well drawn character, and it would be nice to see him again."

Booklist on The Last Minute

"Abbott is one of the best thriller writers in the business, and he delivers action and complex characters in an explosive cocktail. The next Capra novel cannot come fast enough."

Associated Press on The Last Minute

"Extremely compelling . . . a thriller that will get even the most jaded reader's pulse racing . . . a grand slam home run."

Associated Press on Adrenaline

"[An] edgy, seat-of-your-pants spy caper."

Entertainment Weekly on Adrenaline

"Twisty, turny, and terrific."

USA TODAY on Adrenaline

"The Adrenaline rush that won't stop."

San Antonio Express-News

2014-07-02
Abbott's(Downfall, 2013, etc.) hip young ex-CIA spy Sam Capra tangles withinternational smugglers in this fast-moving but ultimately far-fetchedthriller.Sam's quiet life running a Miami Beach bar is interrupted when his close friendand co-worker Steve Robles is murdered, just after a meeting with a mysteriouswoman. After chasing down the killers, Sam identifies the woman asCordelia, the charity-minded heiress of the mega-wealthy Varela family.Cordelia's name is one of a few intentional parallels to Shakespeare's KingLear. Patriarch Rey Varela is losing his faculties, and a mortal familybattle is under way over the future of his shipping business. Looking to avengehis friend, Sam poses as Cordelia's boyfriend and slips inside the familycircle, meeting insecure and ambitious son Galo and beautiful, ruthlessstepdaughter Zhanna. He soon discovers the dark side of the familybusiness. It's hard to overlook the implausibility of many plot turns,especially during the book's climax, when two characters thought dead areresurrected. Using only a book and a pencil, Sam overpowers his captors at amaximum security prison after they inexplicably allow him a one-on-one meetingwithout tying him down. And he somehow gets himself and other escapees rescuedwith a single phone call from the deep jungles of Brazil, when none of themhave any idea of their location.Add in the multiple brushes with gunfire he survives while unarmed and the runhe makes without harm through a minefield, and Capra may be the one of theluckiest sleuths in literature.

Kirkus Reviews