Gadget — Nicolas Freeling

From an Edgar award winner, this thriller about a physicist forced to make an A-bomb is “a splendid account of the excesses of science and bureaucracy” (The New York Times).   An American physicist working in Hamburg, Jim Hawkins is on his way home from his job at a German nuclear institute when he is rammed off the road and abducted by terrorists. Drugged and taken to a secret location, he wakes to find himself being held hostage alongside his terrified wife and daughters. With nothing else to do but comply with the terrorists’ demands, Jim begins to build a weapon powerful enough to destroy the world. The target: a conference in Lake Geneva, where heads of state are meeting, even as news of his abduction has reached the ears of the American president, only to be dismissed as rumor. Will anyone be able to convince the world leaders of the threat in time?   “Freeling moves from straight suspense to a science thriller and keeps his kinkiness intact. . . . Brilliant.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review