Dark Winter

In Tata’s rousing fifth Jake Mahegan novel (after 2017’s Direct Fire), Ian Gorham, the genius founder of Manaslu, Inc., which dominates the “social media, retail distribution, and advertising marketplace,” plans to take over the world by starting WWIII and nuking the U.S. into oblivion. Gorham, aided by sidekick/bodyguard Dax Stasovich and brilliant code-writer hacker Shayne, kicks off the war by killing North Korea’s leader, goading the U.S. Army into an artillery battle with the Russians in Europe, and lobbing a nuke into downtown Tokyo. Meanwhile, Jake is spending quality time on a North Carolina island with girlfriend Army Ranger Cassie Bagwell when they’re called back to duty to try and make sense of the mayhem that’s erupting around the world. Tata excels at jet-fueled action and scenes in which the principals discuss fascinating global war strategy, but many military thriller fans will wish that he devoted less space to Jake’s romance with Cassie and more to what Jake does best: figuring out how to kill bad guys. Agent: Scott Miller, Trident Media Group. (Nov.)