The Last Line

An overly complicated plot mars this action thriller from Shaffer, author of the memoir Operation Dark Heart, and Keith (Decision at Thunder Rift). Saeed Reyshahri, an officer in Iran’s state security service, slips into the U.S. through Mexico, tasked with implementing a complex operation to bring in two suitcase nukes to be set off in New York and Washington, D.C. The resulting destruction will be blamed on al-Qaeda, but behind the plot is a secret organization of U.S. government and business traitors led by Randolph Edgar Preston, the president’s assistant for national security affairs. Their ultimate goal is to establish a Latino country known as Aztlán in the American Southwest. Standing almost alone against the bad guys is Capt. Chris Teller, a case officer in the Department of Defense. Shaffer’s 25 years as an intelligence officer show in such details as the bleeding-edge spy gear, but even the characters hatching this outlandish scheme have trouble believing it. Agent: Deborah Grosvenor, Grosvenor Literary Agency. (June)