Sentinel

In Dunn’s solid second contemporary thriller featuring MI6 master spy Will Cochrane (after 2011’s Spycatcher), Will (code name Spartan) teams with the only other MI6 spy on his level, the mysterious agent known as Sentinel, in an effort to kill Russian Taras Khmelnytsky (code name Razin), “a colonel and the head of Spetsnaz Alpha,” who’s been murdering Sentinel’s 10 most valuable double agents in Central and Eastern Europe one-by-one. Razin is also training a unit to deliver small nuclear bombs to start a war with America with the ultimate goal of promoting his own political ambitions. Dunn, a former MI6 field officer, skillfully handles the usual spy business—uncovering high-placed traitors, blowing the other guy up, fighting one-on-one, and crossing and double-crossing each other. He has also wisely scaled back the almost superhuman capabilities Will displayed in Spycatcher, matching him with a deadly adversary who’s his equal, though some readers may feel Will has become too emotionally vulnerable. Agent: Logo Bonomi. (Aug.)