Aftershock

Donlay’s middling fifth Donovan Nash novel (after 2014’s Deadly Echoes) takes Donovan, a sappy mixture of Jack Ryan and Doc Savage, to Guatemala, where Stephanie Van Gelder, his best friend’s niece, has been kidnapped on a photo shoot. Donovan rushes to the scene with his devoted cohorts from Eco-Watch, his nonprofit research company, and their high-tech flying gear. Meanwhile, Donovan’s estranged, brilliant wife, Lauren, recruits a brash retired FBI agent to uncover the long-term criminal networks behind the kidnapping; through it all, Lauren pauses only to get jealous of the femme fatale who attaches herself to Donovan. The action races to a shoot-out on the shores of Lake Atitlán and a desperate flight through a volcanic eruption as Mt. Atitlán rips itself apart. Donlay keeps things moving too fast for readers to get bored or think much about what’s happening. The aeronautical details lend interest. Agent: Kimberley Cameron, Kimberley Cameron Associates. (Mar.)