The Leviathan Effect

Homeland Security Secretary Catherine Blaine receives a frightening communication from a hacker identified only by the pseudonym "Janus.” The message is the latest in a series of communications correctly predicting natural disasters around the world–disasters that, in fact, were manufactured, not natural at all. And, says the email, unless the United States does as Janus instructs, more disasters are coming—which will have the potential to destroy the United States.

Unaware of the crisis in Washington, investigative journalist Jon Mallory stumbles on a list of seven prominent scientists who have been murdered over the past dozen years. When the person who gave him the list disappears herself, Jon realizes he has unwittingly become part of a deadly chain of events. He contacts his brother, ex-CIA agent Charles, looking for help. Meanwhile, Catherine Blaine has also come to Charles for help to track down the hacker Janus and learn what frightening new science is threatening the world.

James Lilliefors is an award-winning journalist who has written for The Washington Post, The Miami Herald, The Boston Globe, The Baltimore Sun and elsewhere. He was educated at the University of Iowa and the University of Virginia, where he was a Henry Hoyns Fiction Writing Fellow. He currently lives in Florida.