Everybody Wants to Rule the World - Large Print by Ace Atkins (Paperback)

About the Book

"It's 1985, what will soon become known as 'The Year of the Spy,' and fourteen-year-old Peter Bennett is convinced his mom's new boyfriend is a Russian agent. 'Gary' isn't in the phone book, has an unidentifiable European accent, and keeps a gun in the glove box of his convertible Porsche. Peter thinks Gary only wants to get close to his mom because she works at Scientific Atlanta, a lab with big government contracts. But who is going to believe him? He's just a kid into BMX and MTV. But after another woman who works at the lab is killed, Peter recruits an unlikely pair of allies--a has-been pulp writer and muckraker named Dennis Hotchner and his drag performer buddy and heavy, Jackie Demure. Both soon become the target of an unhinged Russian hitman (Is it Gary? Maybe!) with a serious Phil Collins obsession"

Book Synopsis

Elmore Leonard meets Robert Ludlum in a rollicking comedic thriller set in 1985 from acclaimed author Ace Atkins, in which a suburban teen suspects his mom's new boyfriend is the ultimate bad guy--a KGB agent.

It's 1985, what will soon become known as "The Year of the Spy," and fourteen-year-old Peter Bennett is convinced his mom's new boyfriend is a Russian agent. "Gary" isn't in the phone book, has an unidentifiable European accent, and keeps a gun in the glove box of his convertible Porsche. Peter thinks Gary only wants to get close to his mom because she works at Scientific Atlanta, a lab with big government contracts. But who is going to believe him? He's just a kid into BMX and MTV.

But after another woman who works at the lab is killed, Peter recruits an unlikely pair of allies--a has-been pulp writer and muckraker named Dennis Hotchner and his drag performer buddy and heavy, Jackie Demure. Both soon become the target of an unhinged Russian hitman (Is it Gary? Maybe!) with a serious Phil Collins obsession.

Meanwhile, Sylvia Weaver, a young, Black FBI agent, investigates Scientific Atlanta in the wake of the employee's murder and discovers a nest of Russian spies in the Southern "city too busy to hate." Little does she know her investigation is being thwarted by a seriously compromised colleague in Washington, D.C., who is in league with a lovesick, hypochondriac KGB defector who is playing both sides of the Cold War to his benefit.

As Ronald Reagan and Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev prepare for a historic nuclear summit in Geneva, what happens in Atlanta might change the course of the Cold War, the twentieth century, and Peter Bennett's freshman year of high school.

Review Quotes

"Everybody Wants to Rule the World blazes like a missile through Cold War spy games, KGB assassinations, the fiercest Tina Turner drag show ever performed by an Atlanta Falcons defensive end, and the nuclear passions of a 14-year-old boy's heart. Strap in and hold on for a fantastic ride." - Meg Gardiner, #1 New York Times bestselling author
"Ace Atkins' Everybody Wants to Rule the World was an absolute joy to read. A thriller that is as hilarious as it is intense, containing a kaleidoscope of diverse and well-drawn characters, and infused with a sense of place and time that exquisitely capture the zeitgeist of the last decade of the Cold War. This thrill-ride of a novel would make one hell of a movie!" - Mark Greaney, #1 New York Times author of The Hard Line, a Gray Man Novel
"Thriller writers are a dime a dozen, but Atkins' skills at character and dialogue make him priceless." - Linwood Barclay, New York Times bestselling author
"Atkins captures the peak paranoia of the waning days of the Cold War and spins a fantastic yarn filled with deception, double-crosses, action, and drama. Fans of Red Dawn or The Americans will flock to this brilliant novel." - Library Journal (starred review)
"Unlike anything the great Ace Atkins has written before, and an absolute blast! Part Carl Hiaasen, part Elmore Leonard, part John le Carre, and all Ace Atkins, ride the Way Back Machine to the wild world of a 1985 Atlanta brimming with Russian spies! I loved it!" - Robert Crais
"Everybody Wants to Rule the World shows Atkins at the top of his game." - South Florida Sun Sentinel
"At the top of his game with this clever, humorous, and intriguing spy thriller....Fans of historical thrillers or just fun spy or conspiracy stories will want to dive into Atkins' world." - Criminal Element
"Everybody Wants to Rule the World is drenched in '80s nostalgia and style." - CrimeReads