The Tears of Dark Water

Early in this timely and harrowing thriller from Addison (The Garden of Burning Sand), lawyer Daniel Parker and his troubled piano-playing teenage son, Quentin, are sailing their way toward a better relationship when pirates board their boat in the Indian Ocean. Enter Paul Derrick, a love-starved FBI hostage negotiator, and his twin sister, Megan, a hot-shot attorney. Ismail Ibrahim, the pirates’ second-in-command, wants money to free his kidnapped sister, Yasmin, but he’s a morally questionable character who’s hard to care about. Daniel’s violinist wife, Vanessa, and his father, a Washington insider, add emotional complications. Although the details won’t be revealed for hundreds of pages, the basic structure of what will happen is clear from the get-go. Very little is what it seems, thanks to double crosses, agency jurisdictional disputes, and passages describing the blood-soaked history of Somalia. Fortunately, the soul-healing power of music lightens the story. Agent: Dan Raines, Creative Trust Inc. (Oct.)