Gambit

Bodman, a former Reagan deputy press secretary and NSC senior director, makes little use of her inside knowledge of Washington, D.C., in her second near-future political thriller to feature computer whiz Cameron “Cammy” Talbot. Scant months after Talbot managed to avert a war between India and Pakistan by deploying a technology she invented in Checkmate (2007), the White House taps her to develop an antimissile device to restore public confidence in plane travel after a series of midair explosions aboard commercial aircraft. Meanwhile, the attractive scientist's former lover, Lt. Col. Hunt Daniels, and the widowed vice president, Jayson Keller, are both pursuing Talbot. The book's romantic scenes bring the action to a screeching halt. The forces behind the air disasters make several amateurish attempts on Cammy's life, but she predictably survives to save the day. Romantic suspense readers will be more rewarded than Tom Clancy fans. (Feb.)