You don't stand and wait as Hurricane Katrina barrels down on New Orleans, unless you don't have a choice, and maritime lawyer Jonathan Brooks has none. His career in shambles and duty bound to help a figure from his past locate her missing nephew feared drowned in the Mississippi, Brooks is burdened with responsibility and devoid of options. But Mariya is no friend. The sultry Russian provocateur saved his life a decade ago but not without dragging him into a world of murder, mayhem and deceit.

As darkness bleeds into the Crescent City, Brooks' search for the truth behind a body in the river catapults him into an international storm that sweeps into the espionage underworld of Russia, the intelligence centers of Washington, D.C., the politics of North Korea, the waterways of the Panama Canal, the back streets of Havana and the barrios of Caracas — and into the heart of Jonathan's own darkness.

Praise for THE SERPENT'S GAME ...

"Frieden keeps the suspense high and the twists coming in this gritty, complex and satisfying thriller." — Jamie Freveletti, author of Dead Asleep and Robert Ludlum's The Janus Reprisal

"This is some of the best writing about the early hours of Katrina that you are likely to come across. In fact, all Frieden's scenes from the busy pedestrian-filled streets of Stockholm at lunch hour, to the still black night of Panama's brush-filled canal banks, to the filthy inverted hornet's nest of a Caracas barrio are totally convincing. This is a thriller packed with a vast cast of international players and the author has scattered just enough Russian and Spanish phrases in the dialogue to give authenticity to the rapidly switching locations. It's as if you were catching what people are saying on the run, and everyone is on the run in The Serpent's Game." — M.K. Turner, BOOKREVIEW.COM

"Once again, Frieden has delivered a top-notch thriller with an international flair." — Marc Paoletti, author of Scorch