First Kill

A prequel, Hagberg’s exciting 24th Kirk McGarvey thriller (after 2018’s Face Off) chronicles the CIA operative’s first sanctioned assassination “and how it deeply affected the rest of his life—and ultimately, the price just about everyone close to him paid.” A superbly fit 28-year-old McGarvey excels at the Farm, the CIA’s training facility near Williamsburg, Va. He soon attends a meeting in Washington, D.C., where he’s given a major assignment: to kill Chilean Matias Varga, an army general in the Pinochet regime. Varga’s evil exploits rival those of his hero, Nazi doctor Josef Mengele. As McGarvey’s CIA handler tells him, “You’re on your own, Kirk. In this business you’ll always be on your own.” The nascent assassin learns the truth of this and then some as he begins to see the conflicting political motives that are at play. Besides various Chileans and Russians, a mole inside the CIA is intent on making sure that McGarvey’s mission fails. Hagberg nicely balances the assassination story with the hunt for the mole, and those looking for fast, uncomplicated, escapist entertainment will be satisfied. Agent: Susan Gleason, Susan Gleason Literary. (May)