Terry Strickland is a 27-year-old assistant in a residential nursing facility in New York City. While in Mr. Derne's room – a 94-year-old mute – Terry finds a wooden box wrapped in brittle yellowed newspaper, with the date September 1945 – the end of World War II. Inside is an old war medal and a small black book that is empty apart from the last two pages, which has the coordinates for South Brother Island that is in New York's East River, less than a mile from the nursing home. Along with the coordinates is a small hand-drawn map of the island. An X marks a secret. Terry's curiosity takes him on a journey that soon turns into a nightmare when he uncovers a secret about South Brother Island. A secret the American government is willing to kill for. A horrific secret that has already cost millions of lives worldwide. Some secrets and lies should stay buried. The consequences of their meaning could destroy a country. "There are no secrets...

Unless they've lost a passport abroad, most Americans have little appreciation for the reach and scope of the US Department of State or the perils faced by its employees. Reporter Glen Johnson had been covering politics for the Boston Globe when he received a job offer that would embed him in this world of protocols, planes, and global peacekeeping. His new boss would be Secretary of State John Kerry, set to become the most prominent diplomat on the world stage. Johnson sensed it was a meeting of man and moment. For four years, he accompanied Kerry as he became the most-traveled Secretary of State in history. The former journalist kept notes while Kerry worked out a power-sharing agreement in Afghanistan, negotiated with the Israelis, convinced Iran to get rid of its nuclear weapons program, developed a counter-ISIS coalition, and brokered climate change agreements, including the 2015 Paris Agreement. Kerry also confronted two lingering challenges: how to cooperate with an...