The year is 2045 and a warrior battles to save America from an Islamic mastermind in this smart and violent futuristic thriller from New York Times bestselling author Robert Ferrigno. Time is running out for the Islamic Republic and the Bible Belt, the two warring nations that arose when the former United States split apart after an economiccollapse left tens of millions unemployed and desperate for leadership. Weakened by their endless conflict, both countries are now threatened by the expansionist dreams of the Aztlán Empire (formerly known as Mexico) to the south, which has steadily encroached deep into the regions once called California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. Riven by intellectual and social decay, both the Islamic Republic and the Belt are at the brink of collapse. The only solution is to reunite the countries and regain America's former power and global standing. And there's only one man who can do it: Rakkim Epps, genetically enhanced shadow warrior and hero of the two previous books in Robert Ferrigno's astonishing Assassin Trilogy. Time is also running out for Epps's archenemy, the Old One, the sly, immensely rich Muslim fanatic who seeks to create one world under his domination. Now more than one hundred and fifty years old, he is dying and unhappily knows it. His solution is to reunite the Islamic Republic and the Bible Belt his way, and his plan involves his voluptuous but deadly daughter, Baby, and none other than Rakkim himself. The Old One is aided by his sadistic, carbon-skinned enforcer, Gravenholtz, whom Rakkim failed to kill in an earlier encounter and who now wishes to kill Rakkim and those he loves. Meanwhile, there is a rumor of a discovery of a sacred relic in the contaminated ruins of Washington, D.C., a radiation zone peopled by diseased zombies and daring treasure hunters. It is into this deadly wasteland that Rakkim must secretly travel and retrieve the icon if he is to defeat Gravenholtz, Baby, and the Old One, and have even a chance to unite the two halves of America. A stunning stand-alone read, Heart of the Assassin is a feast of cinematic violence, brilliant plotting, and futuristic scene-setting. Completing Ferrigno's Assassin Trilogy, Heart of the Assassin confirms his position as a master of thriller fiction

Brand-new stories by: Michael Connelly, Janet Fitch, Susan Straight, Hector Tobar, Patt Morrison, Robert Ferrigno, Gary Phillips, Christopher Rice, Naomi Hirahara, Jim Pascoe, Scott Phillips, Diana Wagman, Lienna Silver, Brian Ascalon Roley, and Denise Hamilton. Denise Hamilton writes the Eve Diamond series. Her books have been shortlisted for the Edgar, Macavity, Anthony, and Willa Cather awards. The Los Angeles Times named Last Lullaby a Best Book of 2004, and it was also a USA Today Summer Pick and a finalist for a Southern California Booksellers Association 2004 award. Her fourth Eve Diamond novel, Savage Garden, is a Los Angeles Times bestseller and was shortlisted for the Southern California Booksellers Association award for Best Mystery of 2005

SEATTLE, 2040. The Space Needle lies crumpled. Veiled women hurry through the busy streets. Alcohol is outlawed, replaced by Jihad Cola, and mosques dot the skyline. New York and Washington, D.C., are nuclear wastelands. Phoenix is abandoned, Chicago the site of a civil war battle. At the edges of the empire, Islamic and Christian forces fight for control of a very different United States. Enormous in scope and brilliantly imagined, Prayers for the Assassin promises to be the powerhouse read of the year. Burning with cinematic violence, fiendish betrayal, and global intrigue, Robert Ferrigno's sensational thriller asks: What would happen to America if the terrorists won? After simultaneous suitcase-nuke attacks destroy New York, Washington, D.C., and Mecca – attacks blamed on Israel – a civil war breaks out. An uneasy truce leaves the nation divided between an Islamic republic with its capital in Seattle, and the Christian Bible Belt in the old South. In this frightening future there are still Super Bowls and Academy Awards, but calls to Muslim prayer echo in the streets and terror is everywhere. Freedom is controlled by the state, paranoia rules, and rebels plot to regain free will… One of the most courageous is the beautiful young historian Sarah Dougan, who uncovers shocking evidence that the nuclear attacks might not have been planned by Israel, evidence that, if true, will destabilize the nation. When Sarah suddenly goes missing, the security chief of the Islamic republic calls upon Rakkim Epps, her secret lover and a former elite warrior, to find her – no matter what the risk. But as Rakkim searches for Sarah, he is tracked by Darwin, a brilliant psychopathic killer trained in the same secretive unit as Rakkim. To survive, Rakkim must become Darwin's assassin – a most forbidding challenge. A bloody, nerve-racking chase takes them through the looking-glass world of the Islamic States of America, and culminates dramatically as Rakkim and Sarah battle to expose the truth to the entire world. Can the couple outrun Darwin? Who is really behind the nuke attacks? Will Sarah and Rakkim stay alive long enough to deliver the truth? Does a nation divided have a prayer? Robert Ferrigno's Prayers for the Assassin shows the novelist at the height of his powers, and delivers a masterful, unforgettable read

Colossal in concept, dazzlingly plotted, filled with vivid, jaw-dropping violence, Sins of the Assassin confirms Robert Ferrigno as the modern master of the futuristic thriller. In the second book of Ferrigno's spectacular Assassin Trilogy, Rakkim Epps battles radical fundamentalist forces in a futuristic America, now a divided blood-soaked dystopia. Will he survive? Can America ever be unified again? The year is 2043. New York and Washington, D.C., have been leveled by nuclear bombs. New Orleans is submerged beneath fifty feet of water and treasure hunters scavenge its watery ruins. The United States no longer exists, and in its place two new nations maintain an uneasy coexistence. To the west stretches the Islamic Republic, seemingly governed by a moderate president but hollowed from within by the violent, repressive Black Robes, a shadowy fundamentalist group intent on crushing all those who do not follow Allah's path. In this frightening world, freedom is controlled by the state, and non-Muslims are either second-class citizens, hidden underground, exiled, or executed. To the east and south lies the Christian Bible Belt, itself torn by conflict from warring factions, each claiming to be more righteous than the others. Meanwhile the former United States is being nibbled away at the edges: South Florida, known as "Nuevo Florida," is independent; the Aztlán Empire, formerly Mexico, encroaches from the south; and Canada has laid claim to huge swaths of territory along the United States's former northern border. What stability exists between the warring empires is threatened when the president of the Islamic Republic discovers that a Bible Belt warlord, known simply as the Colonel, is searching for a superweapon hidden inside a remote mountain decades earlier by the old United States regime. Rakkim Epps, retired shadow warrior, is sent on a perilous mission to infiltrate the Belt and steal or destroy the weapon. Accompanying Rakkim is Leo, a naive nineteen-year-old whose technologically enhanced brain is crucial to their success.Together they sneak through the Belt, a lawless territory where a bloodthirsty, drug-addled militia prepares for the End-Times. When Rakkim and Leo finally reach the Colonel's mountain, Epps is forced to rely on his shadow warrior's ability to kill any and all who would halt his quest. Opposing him is the Colonel's enforcer, a sadistic, carbon-skinned killer named Gravenholtz, and the Colonel's wife, the alluring, sexually rapacious Baby, who wants – and gets – more of everything. Meanwhile, the Old One, the ancient and immensely rich Muslim fanatic who seeks to rule both American nations, plots his attack from the safety of his ocean liner. Rakkim Epps, he realizes, must be stopped, controlled, or killed. A terrific stand-alone read, Sins of the Assassin is a cinematic feast of action and plot, and verifies Robert Ferrigno's Assassin Trilogy as a monumental imaginative work of suspense