Fidelity

A successful operation against a drug dealer in Baltimore gets ambitious FBI agent Kay Malloy, the heroine of retired FBI agent Fedarcyk’s compelling debut, promoted to the bureau’s counterintelligence unit in New York City, where, much to her disappointment, her duties are mostly deskbound. Kay believes that an assignment to investigate the disappearance of several Russian double agents will prove her skills to her colleagues and her legendary supervisor, Susan Jeffries, one of the few women to hold such a high position. The Russians target Kay for blackmail, as they have other agents, but the only skeleton in her closet is an unfailing devotion to her older brother, Christopher, a screwup who sometimes uses drugs. Meanwhile, Kay must navigate a swamp of betrayal within the agency. Fedarcyk, the sole woman to have headed the FBI’s New York office as assistant director in charge, complements her perceptive study of the driven Kay with vivid details about international politics and the bureau’s inner workings. (Nov.)