Publisher's Weekly Review

In Edgar finalist Hagberg's uneven 25th Kirk McGarvey thriller (after 2019's First Kill), CIA black ops officer McGarvey looks into the death of his parents in a car crash 28 years earlier. Flashbacks show his parents working at New Mexico's Los Alamos National Laboratory, where they have just made a breakthrough on research into countermeasures to Russian laser pulse antisatellite weapons. There are no witnesses when a KGB agent, Yevgenni Zimin, later kills the couple by running their car off the road. In the present day, Zimin is called out of retirement to stop Mac's investigation. The action proceeds in a straightforward manner as McGarvey and his team, which includes his new wife, Pete Boylan, come under almost constant attack from Russian operatives. Pete, a CIA colleague, must use her many skills to help keep them alive. Toward the end, certain mysteries are suddenly solved and loose ends are neatly tied up. Whiplashed readers will be left scratching their heads in confusion at the warp speed resolution. Series fans will be glad there's another McGarvey outing in the pipeline from Hagberg, who died in 2019. (Nov.)