The first thrilling Ben Koenig book from The Sunday Times bestselling author of Dead Ground and The Botanist, featuring a brand-new hero. Ben Koenig is nobody's hero . . . because he doesn't exist. Six years back Ben Koenig headed up the US Marshal's Special Operations Group. They were the unit who hunted the bad guys. The really bad guys. They did this so no one else had to. And then one day Ben sold his house, liquidated his assets and disappeared off the face of the earth. He told no one why and left no forwarding address. For six years he became a grey man. Someone you didn't remember. He drifted from town to town, from state to state, never visiting the same place twice. He was untraceable - officially, he no longer existed. But now his face is plastered across every television screen in the country. Someone from Ben's past is going to extraordinary lengths to find him and they don't care how they do it. They have a job for him, a revenge mission, one Ben won't be able to refuse. Because in the hellish heat of the Chihuahuan desert lies a town called Gauntlet. Some people in Gauntlet have a secret and they'll do anything protect it. And they know Ben is coming. They've killed before and they'll kill again. It's easy to dismiss Ben Koenig as just another drifter, someone you don't need to concern yourself about. But that would be a mistake. Because Ben has a condition, a unique disorder that means he is incapable of experiencing fear. And that makes Ben Koenig a different kind of animal . . .

The murder of two London pickpockets sets off a chain of events with global repercussions. The reappearance of a woman thought long dead results in a safe in Langley being opened for the first time in ten years. Inside there is a letter. On it is written, 'The Acacia Avenue Protocol has been initiated.' Four names are listed underneath. Three of the people on the list are dead. The fourth name is Ben Koenig. Koenig doesn't know why he's on the list and he doesn't know what the Acacia Avenue Protocol is. But he does know the woman who has reappeared. One of the bravest women Koenig has ever met, ten years ago he was asked by a senior intelligence officer to help her fake her own death. Koenig didn't ask why she had to die but he knows one thing for if she's resurfaced then something is very wrong. From the windswept cities of northern England to a remote Scottish airfield, from New York to Nevada, Koenig will follow a trail of death and destruction as he uncovers the horrific protocol. Along the way he'll have run ins with a cabal of corrupt cops known as the East Coast Sweeney, a ruthless private military contractor, and a contract killer with an aversion to the colour yellow. But Koenig will keep going. He has no choice. Because someone has initiated the Acacia Avenue Protocol and if Koenig can't stop it, the world will never be the same again . . .