Damage Control

At the start of Thriller Award–finalist Gilstrap’s rousing fourth novel featuring hostage rescue specialist Jonathan Grave (after 2011’s Threat Warning), Grave and his partner, Boxers, set out to save four adults and six teens ages 15 to 17, part of a church group that went to Mexico ostensibly to help with earthquake recovery, who have now been held for five days by kidnappers who seized their bus in Ciudad Juarez and are demanding a $3 million ransom. Grave and Boxers succeed in killing five kidnappers who step outside the bus in a jungle ambush, but they can’t stop someone inside the bus from shooting dead all but one of the hostages, teen Tristan Wagner. Grave, Boxers, and Tristan flee for their lives, sought by officials in Mexico and denounced by law enforcement in the U.S. Meanwhile, a CIA traitor back home tries to ensure Grave and crew don’t survive. Readers will anxiously await the next installment. Agent: Anne Hawkins, John Hawkins and Associates. (June)