The Shadow List

In Moss’s rewarding fourth Judd Ryker political thriller (after 2016’s Ghosts of Havana), Judd, the head of the State Department’s Crisis Reaction Unit, takes on the job of locating financial firm employee Jason Saunders. Jason, who went missing in London, may have gotten mixed up in a scam centered in Nigeria. Judd is dispatched from Washington, D.C., to Nigeria, where he also looks into death threats received by Nigerian judge Bola Akinola and the kidnapping of famous basketball player Tunde Babatunde. Meanwhile, Judd’s CIA agent wife, Jessica, is ordered into Russia to infiltrate the operation of a mobster nicknamed the Bear. Judd competently handles everything dished out to him, but Jessica’s superior spying skills are the real show-stoppers. The book is at least one subplot too long, but by the end fans will be happy to follow the couple into whatever trouble the U.S. government has in store for them next. [em]Agent: Josh Getzler, HSG Agency. (Sept.) [/em]