Crocodile’s Kill: East Timor Crime Series No. 1

FBI agent Sara Carter, the protagonist of McGillion’s arresting fiction debut, a series launch, is in professional jeopardy after assaulting a man suspected of the abduction and rape of a 12-year-old Navajo girl in Arizona. Her experience handling offenses against Native Americans makes her the natural candidate when Interpol asks for a trained investigator to assist the locals after East Timor is plagued by a rash of infant abductions. The matter’s settled when her boss threatens a full investigation of her excessive use of force unless she accepts the assignment. Carter teams up with a member of the Timorese national police to investigate the kidnappings, the work perhaps of an illegal adoption ring looking for babies to sell to wealthy Westerners. Meanwhile, after human remains become part of a crocodile’s meal, Carter must look into a possible murder and probe the local belief that the powerful reptiles only prey on bad people. McGillion (The Chosen Ones: The Politics of Salvation in the Anglican Church) provides a clever fair clue pointing to one of several villains and makes this unfamiliar part of the world vivid. Readers will eagerly await the sequel. (May)