THE RISK AGENT
A Chinese national working for an American-owned construction company is grabbed off the streets of Shanghai in broad daylight. His one-man security detail goes missing as well.

Rutherford Risk, the company's international security contractor, specializes in negotiation for and recovery of kidnapped hostages. Private investigation is illegal in today's China. Operating within her borders is difficult at best: complex political situations and corrupt individuals combined with the intricacies of Chinese culture make such work anything but straightforward.

The security company recruits two unique outsiders to do its bidding. Grace Chu is a forensic accountant hired to follow the money; John Knox is a civilian with unparalleled training in both combat and the street culture of Shanghai, brought in to support her. Chu's top-notch American education as well as her Chinese military service makes her an unassuming but effective operative, while Knox's take-no-prisoners attitude provides the street smarts and arm-twisting necessary to pursue the location of the hostages. Following the money trail leads to more complex -- and dangerous -- consequences than either Chu or Knox anticipated. Who is actually behind the kidnapping? More important, can Knox and Chu locate the two hostages ahead of the ransom deadline?

Rich with the atmosphere of today's Shanghai in all its contradictory beauty, crackling with tension-filled suspense, The Risk Agent introduces us to two compelling, original characters -- and ushers in the start of a brilliant series.

CHOKE POINT
"Filled with breathtaking suspense . . . Famous for his plotting and attention to details, Pearson is off to a great start with his compelling and multilayered new protagonists." -- Library Journal on The Risk Agent (starred review)

When an award-winning foreign journalist reveals the existence of an Amsterdam-based sweatshop known as a "knot shop" that employs and enslaves young girls as laborers, private security firm Rutherford Risk is hired by a philanthropist to find it and shut it down.

David "Sarge" Dulwich, John Knox's former boss from their government contractor days, knows that Knox's cultural knowledge, combat skills, and sympathy for the abused make him right for the job. Joined by Grace Chu, whose more subtle skills for acquiring sensitive tech information help balance his improvisational style, Knox heads to Amsterdam in an attempt to dismantle the child labor operation and rescue the girls. In their way is a crime organization that has permeated the neighborhoods with goodwill, turning even the victims' parents against their would-be saviors. With enemies around every corner, Knox and Grace can't tell the good from the bad.