City of Exiles

Nevala-Lee’s stylish follow-up to his debut, The Icon Thief, introduces Mormon FBI agent Rachel Wolfe, who’s come to London to work with the British police at the request of Alan Powell of the Serious Organized Crime Agency, who appeared in the first book. At a crime scene in Stoke Newington, a garage flat where a local gunrunner lies in a bathtub shot in the head and burned to a crisp by an unusual combination of chemicals, Rachel reconnects with Alan, who guides her in this case and subsequent related killings. Another party interested in the gunrunner’s murder is Rachel and Alan’s former nemesis, Ilya Severin (aka the Scythian), whom they capture and imprison. Rachel’s questioning of the Scythian à la Clarice Starling brings them to the very heart of the case, the real-life mysterious deaths of nine mountaineers in Russia’s Dyatlov Pass in 1959. Readers will look forward to seeing more of the intrepid Rachel in the trilogy’s third volume. Agent: David Halpern, the Robbins Office. (Dec.)