Signature Wounds

FBI special agent Paul Grale is the hero of this gripping series launch from Russell (One Through the Heart). As Grale is driving to the Las Vegas, Nev., bar where his sister, Melissa, and her husband, Capt. Jim Kern—a drone pilot at Creech Air Force Base—are hosting a Fourth of July party, a bomb explodes inside the bar. Among the dead are about a dozen drone pilots stationed at Creech, Jim, Melissa, and their teenage son, Nate. Their daughter Julia, one of the few survivors, is seriously wounded. Grale, first on the scene, is unable to prevent a subsequent explosion that kills seven law enforcement officers. Because of his bomb tech expertise, he is tasked with tracking the bomb maker. Grale’s friend Jeremy Beatty, a former drone pilot who suffers from PTSD, quickly becomes other investigators’ primary suspect, but Grale is convinced he’s clean. Russell smoothly melds tech info, sophisticated investigative techniques, and old-fashioned macho action as Grale races to prevent another, more devastating attack. Agent: Philip Spitzer, Philip G. Spitzer Literary Agency. (Mar.)