Robert Ludlum’s The Treadstone Resurrection

This uneven series launch from Hood (Clear by Fire) introduces Adam Hayes, a graduate of the secret agency Treadstone, first seen in Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne series. Like Bourne, Hayes wants to forget his violent past and sink into obscurity, but that’s not going to happen once Hayes gets dragged into a mission by Nick Ford, an old agent friend from his Treadstone days who is trapped in a fire fight in rural Venezuela. Shortly before Ford is shot dead, he sends Hayes an email with a picture showing CIA agent Jefferson Gray in an aircraft hangar with Col. Carlos Vega, the head of Venezuela’s secret police. Vega is involved, as is Grey, with the president of Venezuela, Eduardo Díaz, in a drug smuggling scheme. The semibionic Hayes is fascinating to follow through the many long, intricate action scenes, but the sheer number of bad guys, who are continually double-crossing each other and have overly complicated motivations, makes it hard for the reader to keep track of the plot. Perhaps next time Hayes’s foes will be more distinct and more worthy opponents. Agents: Sloan Harris and Zoe Sandler, ICM. (Feb.)