Collision

Bestseller Cohen’s sequel to 2011’s Blink of an Eye gets off to a snappy start when Sean Falcone, a former national security adviser now working as a lawyer in Washington, D.C., interrupts an apparent assassination attempt inside his law firm and manages to kill one of the two gunmen. The other, however, escapes with a laptop containing vital client information about a plan to mine palladium on an asteroid. Not content to let the authorities handle the case, Falcone plunges into a web of political collusion involving politicians and private entrepreneurs who don’t seem to care that the mining operation could knock the asteroid out of its orbit and right into Earth’s path. Cohen, who served as secretary of defense under President Bill Clinton, doesn’t help his dense, confusing plot by interjecting extended commentary on historical events and social issues. Main character Falcone has a quick wit but leaves little impression otherwise. (June)