Three-Edged Sword

In bestseller Lindsay’s uneven third outing for master thief Riley Wolfe (after 2020’s Fool Me Twice), rogue CIA team leader Chase Prescott coerces Wolfe into infiltrating the highly secure island of a Russian icon collector off the Lithuanian coast to steal a jump drive containing top-secret information that’s stored in an impregnable vault. As payment, Wolfe can help himself to an icon. Meanwhile, Prescott kidnaps Wolfe’s mother and his art forger friend, Monique, both of whom are in a coma and unable to defend themselves, to use as leverage to ensure Wolfe’s cooperation. What seems like an impossible challenge, however, becomes yet another adventure in which Wolfe must pull out all the stops to steal the drive and circumvent Prescott’s treachery. The efforts of FBI agent Frank Delgado and his hacker sidekick, Miranda Shaleki, to locate Wolfe’s mother add to the suspense, and the tip of the cap to Edgar Allan Poe at the climax is effectively chilling, but the constant switches in point of view chop up the narrative flow, and the chapters involving Monique distract from the main plotline. Hopefully, Lindsay will return to form next time. Agent: Michael Carlisle, InkWell Management. (Dec.)