Matthew Palmer - Secrets of State

With his first international thriller, The American Mission, Palmer drew on his long experience in the Foreign Service, where he has held a variety of diplomatic posts worldwide and currently serves as director of multilateral affairs in the State Department’s Bureau of Asian and Pacific Affairs. His second novel explores the chillingly real proposition of nuclear conflict between India and Pakistan, following a jaded South Asia expert who trades government work for a high-paying private-sector position and notices an anomaly in a phone transcription that could have devastating consequences—for the region and also for him personally.