Deadlock

At the start of bestseller Coulter’s intricate 24th FBI thriller (after 2019’s Labyrinth), Marsia Gay awaits trial in a D.C. detention center for an unspecified crime and vows revenge on FBI agent Dillon Savich, whom she blames for her arrest, and Savich’s FBI agent wife, Lacey Sherlock. Soon someone starts sending Savich puzzle pieces, which Savich figures out with the aid of fellow FBI agent Pippa Cinelli show a pier in St. Lumis, Md., where Pippa grew up. Pippa goes undercover in St. Lumis, where she finds a copy of the puzzle in a shop. After Pippa is attacked, Savich travels to St. Lumis to help her, and in his absence, Sherlock and their small son barely escape an arsonist’s fire at their Washington, D.C., home. Savich’s efforts to figure out what’s going on eventually lead him to Marsia. A subplot involving a mysterious medium and the disappearance of Rebekah Manvers, a congressman’s wife Savich recently saved from an attempted kidnapping, heightens the tension. Coulter expertly weaves all the plot threads together. Fans of extravagant thrillers with a paranormal tinge will be satisfied. Agent: Robert Gottlieb, Trident Media Group. (July)