Despite an impressive biography that includes stints with Britain’s Special Boat Service and private security, Falconer (The Hostage
) delivers a stand-alone thriller that conveys little of his expertise. When Bernard Mallory, a royal marine corporal, is separated from his unit during a search-and-rescue operation in the second Iraq War, he stumbles on a cache of millions of dollars, which he buries until he can return and safely retrieve it. After leaving the service, Mallory accepts work as a private security guard in the Green Zone, where his scheme to profit is complicated by his growing attraction to a beautiful local, Tasneen Rahman, whose brother, Abdul, witnessed the abduction of Jeffrey Lamont, an employee of a communications company who turns out to be a Milwaukee beer magnate’s black sheep son. Coincidently, Mallory’s latest client is an American journalist assigned to cover the Lamont story. Readers hoping for a sophisticated view of the dangers of 2004 Iraq will be disappointed. (Apr.)
