Shakedown

In bestsellers Gingrich and Earley’s unoriginal sequel to 2019’s Collusion, former Navy SEAL Brett Garrett and sidekick Valerie Mayberry, who has recently been fired from the FBI, are surprised to learn that a Middle Eastern terrorist they thought the Israelis killed is not only alive but has just murdered Brett’s neighbor, a dissident Iranian nuclear physicist, in Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, a Russian oligarch has purchased a used Russian submarine and an Iranian nuclear device that he intends to deploy against the U.S. For help dealing with the terrorist and the oligarch, Brett turns to his pal Thomas Jefferson Kim, the head of Intel-Eye-Check, a cybersecurity firm, who handles the usual computer wizardry. On the personal side, Brett and Valerie spend a lot of time trading insults to hide their burgeoning attraction. Plenty of action and solid prose, along with plenty of intriguing little-known historical and technical facts, make up in part for such stock elements as an unscrupulous Washington reporter and a high-level government traitor. Political thriller fans who have no problem with knowing what’s going to happen next will be satisfied. [em]Agents: Kathy G. Lubbers, Lubbers Agency and David Vigliano, AGI Vigliano Literary. (Mar.) [/em]