Point of Control

In this solid thriller, Sellers (The Gauntlet Assassin) combines a deeply flawed, yet sympathetic lead, with a clever and plausible plot device. Andra Bailey, an FBI agent assigned to the Critical Incident Response Group in Washington, D.C., has managed to be professionally successful, despite being a sociopath and a master manipulator unable to bond with others. Andra’s boss believes that a missing scientist, Milton Thurgood, murdered another scientist, Nick Bowman, because he was jealous of Bowman’s receipt of the International Metallurgy Award and didn’t want Bowman, whose body was found in a remote area northeast of Silicon Valley, to develop “an extraction process for rare earth metals” before he did. Andra’s boss dispatches her to San Jose, Calif., in search of Thurgood. Meanwhile, Shawn Crusher, a tech entrepreneur, schemes to dominate the market for dysprosium, a rare earth element vital to smart phones. Sellers keeps the pages turning, despite a contrived romantic subplot. (Jan.)