Daughter of War: A Pike Logan Thriller

Bestseller Taylor’s meticulously plotted 13th Pike Logan thriller (after 2017’s Operator Down) supplements the derring-do of Pike and the other Taskforce counterterrorism agents with the story of Amena, a 13-year-old Syrian refugee. Amena has landed with her family in Monaco, where she and her younger brother steal valuables from tourists to survive. But when they steal an iPhone from a Syrian intelligence agent, they find themselves in big trouble. The phone contains information about a Syrian plan to use a North Korean biological agent known as Red Mercury, a deadly poison that kills then renders itself safe and untraceable, on an American Special Forces outpost. Pike and his team are in Monaco on a separate mission when they stumble on the Red Mercury plot. Soon Amena is fleeing from the Russians, the Syrians, and the North Koreans, all of whom want the phone. Pike and his fellow agent/love interest, Jennifer Cahill, display their usual resourcefulness, but it’s the plight of Amena that makes this entry particularly gripping. Agent: John Talbot, Talbot Fortune. (Jan.)