Black Money

A low-level government investigator looking at the books of a failed Northern California bank stumbles upon an account that has no explanation. It is a tiny thread that will ultimately unravel a criminal tapestry of unbelievable audacity, complexity, and scope, a conspiracy ranging from the cocaine fields of the Andes to the corridors of power in Washington, D.C. Few other novelists today know as much about the intersection of big money and global crime as Michael M. Thomasand none can match his storytelling power. Charged with action, surprise, and inside knowledge, Black Money gathers an unlikely team of heroes, led by Lee Boynton, a wealthy heiress turned journalist, and Thurlow Coole, a Wall Street wizard turned computer-fraud expert. They find themselves challenging a criminal alliance that, in a diabolically clever scheme, is laundering billions of drug dollars through a skein of businesses ranging from Wall Street firms to fast-food stores. At a relentless pace, Black Money leads us into the inner coils of the vast global web, along whose filaments trillions of dollars move every day, and into the brain of JEDI, the top-secret government computer network the penetration of which lies at the heart of the plot. This is a whole new kind of techno-thriller - one in which the weapon is more awesome than any missile.