The Three-Nine Line by David Freed

More than forty years after their release from the notorious “Hanoi Hilton,” three American prisoners of war return to Vietnam to make peace with their most brutal former captor, a guard whom they’ve dubbed, “Mr. Wonderful.” The U.S. State Department hopes reconciliation will help cement a major trade agreement between Washington and the Vietnamese. But when Mr. Wonderful is found murdered, the three ex-POWs are accused of the crime and the multi-billion dollar deal threatens to unravel. Enter pilot, still-aspiring Buddhist, and former military assassin Cordell Logan.

Working with a newly formed covert intelligence unit that answers directly to the White House, Logan is dispatched to Hanoi to identify the real killer as the trade agreement threatens to implode. What he soon uncovers proves to be a vexing and increasingly dangerous mystery. Who really killed the guard and why? Unlocking the answers will test every ounce of Logan’s ingenuity and resolve, while risking his life as never before.

Like its three predecessors in the Cordell Logan mystery/thriller series Flat Spin, Fangs Out, and Voodoo Ridge, The Three-Nine Line is a classic, pulse-pounding page-turner. Legions of loyal readers and critics alike, from Booklist, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and Library Journal to Noir Journal and the Associated Press, have hailed the series for its taut writing, finely wrought characters, flashes of wry humor, and full throttle pacing. The Three-Nine Line may well be the best yet.

*****

“Freed’s outstanding fourth Cordell Logan mystery takes the wise-cracking U.S. government agent to Hanoi, where three ex-POWs, once guests of the notorious Hanoi Hilton, are participating in a reconciliation ceremony with their former guards. Freed pulls off the remarkable feat of writing an entertaining first-class suspense yarn while addressing serious political and personal issues in an even-handed, informed manner.” ~Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“A nifty detective story with juicy writing and a very likable hero.” ~Kirkus Reviews

“Masquerading as psychologist Dr. Bob Barker, Logan is charged with finding the real killer and keeping the trade agreement alive. That task would seem to require diplomacy, but Logan takes a different tack. An equal-opportunity wiseguy, ready to ridicule whenever an opportunity presents itself, he insults his way to the answers. A nice combination of international intrigue and hard-boiled patter.” ~Booklist

*****

David Freed is a screenwriter, novelist and former award-winning investigative journalist for The Los Angeles Times, where he was an individual finalist for the Pulitzer Prize’s Gold Medal for Public Service, the highest award in American journalism, and later shared in a Pulitzer Prize for the newspaper’s coverage of the 1992 Rodney King riots. His 8,600-word exposé in The Atlantic, detailing how the FBI pursued the wrong suspect in a string of anthrax murders following 9/11, was short-listed as a 2011 finalist in Feature Writing by the American Society of Magazine Editors. The third installment in his Cordell Logan mystery series, Voodoo Ridge, was released in 2014.

To learn more about David, please visit his website.