Into each of his bold thrillers, best-selling author Steve Martini packs fast-moving action and convincing characters. Critical Mass is his chillingly realistic tale of nuclear terrorism and a deadly plot to destroy the American way of life. While updating the database at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies in California, nuclear fission expert Gideon van Ry discovers two Russian nuclear devices are missing. As he searches for the unstable components, his investigation points to a renegade militia group operating in the Pacific Northwest. Suddenly he finds himself in a frantic struggle to prevent a disaster too horrifying to contemplate. Gideon's battle with out-of-control hate takes him on a perilous journey from the far reaches of rural Russia to Washington's rocky coast to the United States capital. Narrator Frank Muller's dramatic timing brings out all the riveting tension as the plot twists and turns in a race to the explosive finish.