Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Evolution

This assured contribution to the Jason Bourne franchise from Thriller Award–winner Freeman (Thief River Falls) opens with a 2019 newspaper account of a sniper shooting in Las Vegas, Nev., that killed dozens a year earlier, but it’s the 2020 assassination in New York City of Congresswoman Sofia Ortiz, as recounted through a series of live tweets, that triggers the main action. Bourne, identified in a tweet only as “an ex-government operative gone rogue,” is accused of killing Ortiz, who was scheduled to speak about a massive data hack and to introduce a new law to curb the excesses of big tech. Bourne once again finds himself on the run, “in the crosshairs of every intelligence agent on the planet.” The action races from sunny Nassau to the rainy Highlands of Scotland, where Bourne faces perhaps his most dangerous foe yet, the evil Medusa agent known as Miss Shirley. Freeman has a firm grasp of Bourne’s tangled background, plus the skills to keep the action front and center. Bourne fans will hope for an encore from this talented author. Agent: Sloan Harris, ICM. (July)