Red Warning

Despite being on paid leave for overzealously pursuing past cases, CIA officer Sam Hudson, the hero of this fast-paced thriller from Quirk (Hour of the Assassin), refuses to back off his search for a deep cover Russian agent, code-named Konstantin, believed responsible for the assassination of several U.S. operatives overseas. Hudson believes Konstantin has already arrived in Washington, D.C., and is behind a recent bombing, as well as a dramatic explosion on the Mall that killed a U.S. senator. Hudson teams with fellow CIA officer Emily Pierce, and together they endure several bloody encounters with embedded Russian agents who are planning to take Konstantin’s plan a step further by activating an operation set in place 35 years earlier by Soviet spies. A tense, subterranean confrontation between Hudson and Konstantin caps off the action. In the end, neither lead character leaves much of an impression, and the middle of the convoluted plot contains references to events and characters that will be meaningful only to those who have read other books by this author. Fans of Quirk’s rock ’em, sock ’em brand, however, will be satisfied. Agent: Dan Conaway, Writers House. (June)