Retribution: A Harry Tate Thriller

In this standout thriller, Magson’s fourth featuring Harry Tate (after 2012’s Deception), the former MI5 agent pursues a deadly terrorist, Kassim, who comes out of the remote hills of Afghanistan in 2012 and starts killing members of the KFOR team that Harry led in Mitrovica, Kosovo, in 1999. One night back then, Harry and his men took refuge in a container depot, where that same night a local 14-year-old girl was raped and killed. Circumstantial evidence suggests the culprit was a U.N. soldier. A high-ranking U.N. security official Harry knows hires him to warn the surviving members of the team and to hunt down the assassin who’s seeking revenge for the girl’s death. Harry and computer whiz pal Rik Ferris jet around the world, always arriving just a little too late to prevent another murder. There’s plenty of action, but the thrill is following Harry’s agile mind as he figures out the who, what, where, and why of these revenge killings. Think le Carré and Deighton rather than Thor and Flynn. Agent: David Headley, DHH Literary (U.K.). (Feb.)