The Ultimatum

April 13, 2015
In bestseller Wolf’s exciting third Jeremy Fisk novel (after 2014’s The Execution), the head of a Mexican drug cartel, angered that an attempt to kill the NYPD Intelligence Division detective has failed, calls in a master assassin to complete the job. Meanwhile, a fanatical killer using drones and calling himself Yodeler promises to kill a person a day until imprisoned whistle-blower Merritt Verlyn, who provided Intelligence Division documents to WikiLeaks, is released. The Joint Terrorism Task Force team is formed to deal with Yodeler’s threat and track down the thousands of missing documents that Verlyn stole. Fisk ends up a reluctant partner with New York Times journalist Chay Maryland, who may hold the key to the missing documents. In spite of a bewildering alphabet soup of agencies, gadgets, and systems, plus numerous subplots, Wolf keeps the story moving briskly. Fisk and Maryland make a surprisingly good team, and both play key roles in the startling ending.

January 1, 2015

Det. Jeremy Fisk is dealing with the fallout from having his unlisted home address leaked and the leaker arrested when a serial sniper starts knocking off people on the streets of New York, possibly with the help of advanced drone technology. From Law & Order creator Wolf; a 100,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2015
In Wolf's third Jeremy Fisk thriller, a sniper using a specially equipped drone is randomly killing people in New York. He promises to continue doing so until a leaker of police intelligence materials, who has been taken into custody, is released. The classified documents, as reported in the New York Times, reveal that the NYPD's Intelligence Division is collecting information on law-abiding Muslims throughout the city. The information, leaked by one Merritt Verlyn, includes Fisk's unlisted address, which his enemies in the Mexican Cartel are happy to have. They waste no time sending a hit squad to the detective's door. On the run after escaping that threat, Fisk, whose Social Security number and date of birth were also exposed, discovers that his bank account has been emptied and his credit cards have been suspended. With a mysterious party calling himself Yodeler threatening to kill one person every day until Verlyn is released, Fisk teams up with Chay Maryland, the Times reporter who's covering the story, to track him down. Maryland is targeted herself by a young undercover Chinese intelligence officer who needs the leaked documents in her possession to penetrate the firewall of the newspaper and then that of the Department of Commerce. Wolf, creator of TV's Law & Order franchise, is in complete control. The basic outlines of the story may be familiar, but his smartly drawn characters and situations lift the novel, as do the crisp chase scenes and shootouts. And the sniper and drone elements couldn't be timelier. Another solid thriller by Wolf, who is proving as dependable a novelist as a TV producer.

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May 1, 2015
Torn from today's headlines! Wolf must have that phrase framed above his desk. He's the very successful television producer of the Law & Order television franchise and the best-selling author of two previous novels featuring NYPD detective Jeremy Fisk. Using the familiar L&O signature, Wolf takes a newsworthy event or issue to use as a starting point for his plot. Here it's whistle-blowers. Verlyn Merritt, a hacker, is arrested after releasing sensitive documents concerning the NYPD Intelligence Division to WikiLeaks. Soon after, assassins attempt to take Fisk down, and, after that, a sniper begins killing random, innocent New Yorkers. Why? A series of text messages and e-mails to the NYPD demand the release of Merritt. Each day's delay will cause the death of another innocent. Fisk heads up the investigation, but each time he thinks he's made a breakthrough, the Yodeler, as the blackmailer calls himself, slips out of Fisk's grasp. A curfew is enacted, and the streets are deserted. Wolf is not just a brilliant TV producer; he's a fine writer, too. He keeps the pages turning and the suspense building. Exciting reading for suspense and procedural junkies.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)