The Big Country

In his explosive debut thriller, Christopher Reich tells the harrowing story of a young man willing to risk everything--his career, his integrity, and even his life--to hunt down his father's killer. Set in thesecret, labyrinthine world of Swiss banking, "Numbered Account, " with its detail and intelligence, could have been written only by an insider--the author himself worked at a major Swissbank for three years.

Former U.S. marine and Harvard Business School graduate Nicholas Neumann seems to have it all: a dream job, a beautiful fiance, a future bright with promise. But beneath thedazzling veneer of this golden boy is a man haunted by the brutal killing of his father seventeen years before. And when new evidence implicates the venerable United Swiss Bank in the crime, Nick finds himself willing todo whatever it takes to uncover the truth.

Leaving behind everything he holds dear, Nick takes a job in Zurich with the United Swiss Bank, and is soon plunged into a world where everything--loyalty, power, even life and death--can be bought and sold for the right price. As the secrets of the venerable bank are laid bare, suddenly Nick knows far too much--about the offer he never should have accepted, about the moneyhe never should have handled, about the woman he never should have loved. And as the darkness gathers around him, Nick is faced with a shattering truth: To catch the criminal who murdered his father, he must become acriminal himself.

A work of searing intelligence and sheer storytelling genius, "Numbered Account" is one of those rare thrillers that not only make you sweat, butmake you think.