John Grisham meets Mario Puzo in this entertaining thriller by the godson of a real-life Mob boss. Marty English (born Iglesia) is an ad whiz and son of a Chicago gangster who finds himself entangled with the Mafia after his father, Tony Iglesia, is poisoned with a potent new drug that"s cheaper, stronger, and easier to produce than cocaine. Was Tony killed because he wouldn"t risk the wrath of his partners in the Colombian cartel by flooding the market with the drug? The secret may lie in the computer disk that arrives in the mail a few days after Tony dies, but Marty is too busy to decipher the mysterious glyph on the disk or track down his father"s killers. First he has to produce a 30-second commercial for a new client--Arrow Pharmaceutical Company--in time for the Super Bowl, which is less than three weeks away. If he can pull it off, Arrow"s multimillion-dollar account will save his foundering ad agency and incidentally put him in line for the CEO"s job. Nothing is more important--not the threats on Marty"s life by men who"ve already killed once for the disk"s secrets, not the ultimatum issued by his girlfriend, a beautiful photojournalist who"s been pushing Marty for a commitment. The action builds to a breathtaking conclusion in the Belizean rainforest, where he"s warned off by a Mayan shaman, pursued by the Mob, ensnared by a renegade CIA team, and seduced by Arrow"s beautiful marketing director. Lively and fast-paced, with enough high-tech drama to enthrall fans of Robin Cook and Michael Crichton, 30 Seconds delivers suspense and thrills enough for big-screen treatment. --Jane Adams