SEAL Team Six: Hunt the Scorpion

Mann and Pezzulo’s second SEAL Team Six thriller is, like their first (2012’s Hunt the Wolf), light on character development but heavy on action. It starts with Chief Warrant Officer Tom Crocker of SEAL Team Six battling a gang of Somali pirates who are attempting to seize the ship Contessa and her cargo of nuclear material. In the effort to save the ship, Crocker misses capturing Col. Farhed Alizadeh, a “member of the Iranian Revolutionary Corps and an engineer linked to Iran’s nuclear program.” After a puzzling interlude during which the SEALs participate in a grueling footrace, they jet to Libya to ferret out secret stashes of Qaddafi-era WMDs. Meanwhile, Crocker’s wife, Holly, who works for the State Department, is due to fly into Tripoli. When Holly doesn’t arrive, Crocker begins to worry—for good reason, as she’s been kidnapped. An open-ended conclusion promises more of the same for SEAL Team Six. Agent: Heather Mitchell, Gelfman Schneider Literary. (Feb.)