The Eagle and the Viper — Loren D. Estleman

It's a time of improvised explosive devices, terrorist training camps, international assassins, and war on civilians. It's Christmas Eve, 1800.

This much is history: On Christmas Eve, 1800, an "infernal machine" exploded in one of the busiest streets in Paris, France, destroying buildings and killing thirty-five people. It wasn't the first attempt on the life of Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the newly minted Republic of France.

This much is exclusive to our story: Upon the failure of the Christmas Eve plot, the conspiracy takes a new and more diabolical turn.

Posterity knows what became of Napoleon: He led France into a series of military adventures that ended in his defeat, followed by decades of peace. But this future hung on a precarious thread. One man can make history; another can change it. Part high-octane suspense, part dire warning, this novel reveals how close our world came-at the dawn of a promising new century-to total war.