When the National Security Agency's invincible code-breaking machine encounters a mysterious code it cannot break, the agency calls in its head crytpgrapher, Susan Fletcher, a brilliant, beautiful mathematician. What she uncovers sends a shock waves through the corridors of power. The NSA is being held- hostage not by guns or bombs, but by a code so complex that if released would cripple U.S intelligence.

Caught in an accelerating tempest of secrecy and lies, Fletcher battles to save the agency she believes in. Betrayed on all sides, she finds herself fighting not only for her country but for her life, and in the end, for the life of the man she loves...

Anthony Lucia, an old Italian pigeon keeper known to his South Philly neighbors as "Pigeon Tony," doesn't try to hide the fact that he killed lifelong enemy Angelo Coluzzi, nor is he sorry that he's dead. He justifies the killing because he was merely carrying out a vendetta begun more than 50 years ago in Italy, a blood feud that brought great tragedy to Pigeon Tony's life.

But is murder ever justified? That is what ace lawyer, Judy Carrier, an associate of the Philly law firm Rosato & Associates, must decide for herself, before she can launch a defense in what becomes the most challenging case of her career. Challenging, not only because of its legal complexities, but because she must outsmart and outrun the victims sons, dangerous men who are determined to avenge their father's death, and finish off Pigeon Tony and Judy before the case goes to trial.

A killer flees the scene of a homicide at a prestigious music school and locks himself in a classroom. Within minutes, the police have him surrounded. There's a shout from inside, followed by a gunshot. The police breakdown the door. The room is empty.

Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs are brought in to help with the high-profile investigation of a master illutionist. But the conjurer baits them with gruesome murders that become more diabolical with each fresh crime.

As the fatalities rise and the minutes tick down, Rhyme and Sachs must move beyond the smoke and mirrors to prevent a terrifing act of vengence that could become the greatest vanishing act of all.