Everybody Wants to Rule the World

It's 1985, what will soon become known at "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 Premier Mikhail Gorbachev prepare for a historic nuclear summit in Geneva, what happens in Atlanta might change the course of the Cold War, the 20th Century, and Peter Bennett's freshman year of high school.

With his boisterous and beguiling new novel Don't Let the Devil Ride, Ace Atkins confirms his status as the poet laureate of Southern hustlers and ne'er do wells. Full of wily humor and epic bad behavior, this is an ebullient, rollicking ride you don't dare miss. Megan Abbott, New York Times bestselling author of Beware the Woman

One of the best crime writers working today, Ace Atkins has been nominated for multiple major awards in crime fiction, including the Edgar three times, twice for novels about former U.S. Army Ranger Quinn Colson. He's written eight books in the Colson series, with many more to come. He continued Robert B. Parker's iconic Spenser character after Parker's death in 2010, and has added seven best-selling novels in that series.

A former newspaper reporter and SEC football player, Ace also writes essays and investigative pieces for several national magazines including Time, Outside, and Garden & Gun.

He lives in Oxford, Mississippi with his family, where he's friend to many dogs and several bartenders.

Find out more about Ace and his novels on his official website: aceatkins.com, on Facebook Ace Atkins, and on Twitter @aceatkins.

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