Countdown to Death

by Bryan Cassiday

Haunted by self-loathing, Ethan Carr quits the Los Angeles Police Department after he accidentally shoots to death an innocent boy on one of his assignments. Years later, he sets up shop as a private investigator and is hired by Richard Herbert to protect him from being assassinated for twenty-four hours until he meets his son. Herbert is on the lam from his employer US Cyber Command at the National Security Agency campus in Fort Meade, Maryland.

He tells Carr he wants to reveal top secret intel to the media about a computer program Cybercom has invented that can infect and disable permanently any computer in the world. He is convinced the Equation Group, a shadowy arm of the NSA, is going to have him killed before he can reveal his intel to the media.

Carr is reluctant to take on Herbert as a client, believing the US government might consider Herbert a traitor for publicizing top secret national security information. Carr decides to take the case because he doesn't believe the government has the right to assassinate its own citizens on American soil, which Herbert claims that they are about to do to him and that they have done to others.

Carr's battle to keep himself and Herbert alive in a web of lies, cabals, and assassination plots that emanate from the highest seats of power becomes a battle for his tortured conscience, which is not only consumed with guilt from his erstwhile job but racked by qualms about his decision to protect Herbert, who could be a traitor to his country.

Genres: Thriller

351 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2015

About the author

Award-winning author Bryan Cassiday writes thrillers and horror fiction. His novel Horde (Zombie Apocalypse: The Chad Halverson Series Book 6) won the 2022 Independent Press Award and the 2021 American Fiction Award for Best Horror novel. His novel Electric Green Mambas was a Finalist in the Reader Views Award for Thrillers 2021-22. His short story "Boxed" was published in the anthology Shadows and Teeth Volume Two, which won both the 2017 International Book Award for best adult horror fiction anthology and the Florida Association of Publishers and Authors President's Award gold medal for best adult horror fiction anthology 2017.

"A bracing page-turner with an unconventional hero."--Kirkus Reviews on Bryan's thriller Murder LLC

His thrillers include the psychological thriller The Payout and the Ethan Carr thriller Force of Impact, which Kirkus Reviews called "A fast-paced detective novel enhanced by exceptional characters and a striking ending."

Praise for Bryan Cassiday's Thriller Bolt

“From the very start, Bryan Cassiday spins what appears to be a typical Southern Californian private investigation novel in Bolt, but quickly takes off in a direction that speaks to our current troubled times. Well-plotted and crisply written, with great characterization, this is one to look for.”--Brendan DuBois, coauthor with James Patterson of The Cornwalls Are Gone.

"Noir suspense at its best! Private eyes, hit men, globe-trotting, and characters you don't know whether you can trust or not. Fans of James Ellroy, Dennis Lehane, and Fredrick Forsyth will love Bolt!"--Matthew Farrell, best-selling author of What Have You Done

Praise for Bryan Cassiday's Zombie Books

"The plot engages from the beginning and holds the reader's interest until the last page."--The Booklife Prize on Horde

"Cassiday blends thoughtful suspense and pulse-pounding terror to deliver a novel with both bite and creeping dread."--David Dunwoody, author of Empire and The Harvest Cycle

"Written with the epic scope of World War Z and infused with the gritty spook works derring-do of a Robert Ludlum spy thriller, Sanctuary in Steel is full of zombie mayhem through and through."--Joe McKinney, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Flesh Eaters and Inheritance

"Sanctuary in Steel made me feel like I did the first time I watched Romero. Fresh, exciting and engaging like any outbreak story should be."--Iain McKinnon, author of Domain of the Dead