Red on the River

January 1, 2022

In Bentley's Tom Clancy Zero Hour, Jack Ryan Jr. is interviewing a Campus prospect in Seoul when North Korea's leader is devastatingly injured, prompting a power struggle among sleeper agents in South Korea. In Berry's The Omega Factor, UNESCO investigator Nicholas Lee is following a lead to the long-missing 12th panel of the relentlessly plundered Ghent Altarpiece when he stumbles upon a centuries-old conflict between some no-nonsense nuns called the Maidens of Saint-Michael and the Vatican, desperate to grab a secret the maidens guard (200,000-copy first printing). Having appeared in six best-selling DeMille novels, retired NYPD Homicide Detective John Corey is hanging out at his uncle's waterfront estate on Long Island when he heeds a call to help find a serial killer who is dispatching prostitutes and burying them along the beach in The Maze (originally scheduled for June 2021; 500,000-copy first printing). Pulled from the icy Pacific and presumed dead, a revived Elle can remember little except her name in Dodd's stand-alone, Point Last Seen, but it surely looks to rescuer Adam like someone tried to kill her (75,000-copy paperback and 10,000-copy hardcover first printing). What could be Red on the River in the next exemplar of Romantic suspense from Feehan, which is set in the Sierra Nevada mountains? When tomb raiders kill archaeologist Riley Smith's father after he discovers the burial site of Helen of Troy, Riley seeks revenge while asking forensic sculptor Eve Duncan to reconstruct A Face To Die For (100,000-copy first printing). Marshals Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch have their hands full in Knott's Robert B. Parker's Opium Rose when the daughter of Virgil's half-brother arrives in Appaloosa, having fled San Francisco following the death of her lawyer husband; apparently, he was involved in a big opium operation. In Escape, a follow-up to Patterson's Black Book, a rich-as-Croesus crime lord breaks out of jail and leaves a taunting note for crack Chicago detective Billy Harney, who he knew would be called to the scene (300,000-copy first printing). In Quirk's Red Warning, CIA officer Sam Hudson is nearly blown up in Geneva as he obsessively tracks Russian mole Konstanin, then dodges bombs back in Washington, DC, when Konstanin follows him home (125,000-copy first printing).

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Starred review from May 16, 2022
Bestseller Feehan (Murder at Sunrise Lake) fires on all cylinders with this expertly wrought romantic suspense novel. Nurse Vienna Mortenson loves two things: her peaceful, isolated life in California’s Eastern Sierras—and online gambling. After gaining considerable acclaim for her winning strategies, she heads to Las Vegas for a high-profile gambling tournament and comes face to face with Zale Vizzini, the man who broke her heart by ghosting her months earlier. Someone’s been picking off undercover agents investigating billionaire casino owner Daniel Wallin, and Zale, a military operative, is in town to catch the killer. When Vienna beats Wallin at cards, she inadvertently paints a target on her back. Now Zale will do whatever it takes to protect her. Plucky Vienna and mysterious Zale are an explosive combination, and Feehan continually ratchets up the breathless danger and sexual tension. Secondary characters get just as much development; Zale’s partner, Rainier, and Vienna’s brassy friends, Raine and Shabina, are sure to win readers over. This dazzling thrill-ride proves impossible to resist. Agent: Meg Ruley, Jane Rotrosen Agency.