Pendulum

At the start of Hamdy’s fast-paced, cinematic thriller, reclusive photojournalist John Wallace, who lives in a flat in a converted London church, finds himself blindfolded and tied up shortly after making the mistake of opening his door to a masked intruder. Within minutes he’s strung up from a beam, a noose around his neck. His body-armor-clad assailant, who never explains the assault, leaves Wallace to dangle. Wallace’s spectacular escape is one of many exciting action sequences in a plot that quickly spirals into messiness, as the photographer tries to puzzle out why he’s been targeted by a relentless, unstoppable villain who bests the Metropolitan Police and the FBI with equal ease. Hamdy (Run) dispatches characters and introduces subplots amid shifting locations including Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York City. The action-packed jump cuts and sudden, short story arcs become tiresome, and the climax fails to live up to the gripping beginning. Agent: Hannah Shepherd, DHH Literary Agency (U.K.). (June)