Graham's first novel, Strings, introduced seven-year-old Russian piano prodigy Alexis Koryavin, a student at the Institute for Gifted Children in Moscow. The school's director, General Andrei Petrov, hijacked Alexis' life by implanting a device in his brain designed to control him. Alexis' escape to the US resulted in tragedy leading to the death of his parents. As a US citizen, he changed his name to Alex Courtland, and as a young man became recognized as the most famous pianist of his time. Tragically, he also acted as an unwilling agent of Petrov's, assassinating those who threatened the political agenda of the general and his partner John Tilton, whose political career advanced to becoming the president of the United States.
Score continues to follow Alex as he uses his remarkable skills as a pianist and trained CIA operative to challenge President Tilton and his authoritarian agenda. He risks his own life, and the lives of those closest to him, as he becomes involved with Mexican drug cartels, an international kidnapping, and continued threats posed by both President Tilton and Tilton's new partner, Russian president Sergey Ivanov, and their goal for world domination.
As the Cold War environment dissolves, a new danger surfaces from a Russian artificial intelligence entity that exposes Alex and those he loves to unexpected and menacing surveillance. He needs to understand and confront these new threats if he is to survive. But as Alex joins forces with an elite team to present a serious challenge to Tilton and save American democracy, he receives shocking news that will once again change his life.
