Man on Ice

British author Hawksley (Security Breach) strains credibility with this near-future thriller and series launch. On the Alaskan island of Little Diomede in the Bering Strait, Dr. Carrie Walker, a trauma surgeon, treats a sick 15-year-old girl, Akne Ondola, who has gone into labor. With Carrie is her fiancé, island native Rake Ozenna, a member of an elite infantry unit known as the Eskimo Scouts, whom she “met over a car bomb in Kabul.” A Russian medical helicopter arrives from Siberia, ostensibly to help Akne, but in fact it’s part of a daring act of Russian aggression days before the inauguration of a new American president. When the Russians’ intentions become clear, Rake shifts into full Die Hard mode and starts taking them out one by one, even as the situation threatens to escalate into nuclear war. A silly plot and awkward prose (“America’s values, based on our values, have allowed you, a watchmaker’s son from Yorkshire, to become the Prime Minister of Great Britain”) don’t bode well for future entries. Agent: David Grossman, David Grossman Literary Agency (U.K.). (May)