Gridlock

The nation’s energy grid remains a terrorist target in Dorgan and Hagberg’s action-packed follow-up to 2012’s Blowout. Several computer probes aimed at our electrical power system indicate that a major strike is on the way. The Iranian and Venezuelan secret services have hired Barend Dekker, a genius hacker operating out of Holland, to insert a Russian virus into the American grid. Dr. Whitney Lipton, the head of the Dakota Initiative power station, which survived a massive attack in the last book, is still herding her army of coal-eating, methane producing bacteria. Her friend Ashley Borden, a reporter for the Bismarck Tribune, and Ashley’s boyfriend, county sheriff Nate Osborne, are about all that stands in the way of ex-Spetsnaz Capt. Yuri Makarov, now working as a contract killer to aid in the virus’s implementation. Former Senator Dorgan’s energy policy expertise and bestseller Hagberg’s thriller-writing know-how bode well for a long series. Agent: Mel Berger, William Morris Endeavor. (July)