New York City falls into chaos when an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapon is set off in orbit, triggering the most massive power failure and blackout in history.

The blackout, whose epicenter is New York City, is far more serious than any ordinary mass power outage, since EMP destroys unprotected electrical and digital systems, including computers, automotive systems, radio and cellular communications, public transportation switching and control systems, street lighting and other vital infrastructure without which civilization can't function.

The EMP pulse triggers multinational military and civil operations ranging from rescue to combat, while in the meantime New York's five boros are turned into a savage battleground in a concrete jungle where survival of the fittest has suddenly become the only law.

To some city denizens, though, the blackout comes as a blessing in disguise, making it possible to stage and execute the heist of the century under cover of darkness ... The Blackout Heist.

High-tech criminals posing as terrorists devise a method of blacking out the entire city of New York -- selectively by district -- by securing control of the national power grid.

Their target has never before been so much as touched. This time will be different. Way different. The heist will go down among the greatest robberies in the history of criminal enterprise.

The cops will be put out of action. The military will be out of gas. Emergency first responders will be stalled. The city of New York will be out of the vital electrical power its millions of inhabitants need to stay safe and secure.

In the midst of this turmoil a determined band of professional thieves await the chance of a lifetime. It's the opportunity to make the score of a lifetime, if not the score of the century. The big money job has been planned for years, and now the time has come to make the final move and net an almost unimaginable fortune in looted treasure.

The Blackout Heist.

By #1 New York Times bestselling author David Alexander.