Fatal Thunder

In bestseller Bond’s intricate fifth Jerry Mitchell submariner thriller (after 2013’s Shattered Trident), a nuclear detonation in Kashmir threatens to break the fragile Indo-Pakistani cease-fire. U.S. national security advisor Dr. Joanna Patterson determines that the device was not Indian in origin, but was a Soviet-era warhead stolen from an undersea entombment first discovered in 2007’s Dangerous Ground. Russian former naval officers have plundered the site to arm the leaders of an Indian military coup, who are planning to attack targets in China; once they destroy the Chinese capability to protect Pakistan, they can renew the war. Cmdr. Jerry Mitchell of the USS North Dakota, with the help of his former enemies Russian captain Aleksey Petrov and Indian captain Girish Samant, must hunt down the rogue Indian submarine that’s intent on delivering the cataclysmic payload. Bond has a facility with non-American characters, and the diverse all-star cast from earlier novels makes for a stalwart crew. Sound the klaxons and dive in. Agent: Robert Gottlieb, Trident Media. (May)