Black Wolf

The propulsive second volume of Gómez-Jurado’s trilogy featuring Antonia Scott (after Red Queen) sends the brilliant investigator on a high-stakes mission to take down a Russian crime syndicate. Scott is a key player in the Red Queen project, a covert European law enforcement initiative tasked with bringing to justice serial killers, terrorists, and “particularly elusive violent criminals.” Red Queen’s controller, Mentor, has sent Scott and Basque police inspector Jon Gutiérrez to find Lola Moreno, the widow of Yuri Voronin, who’s just been gunned down in his home in Spain. Voronin was the treasurer of Russia’s vicious Orlov Gang, and Mentor hopes that intel from Moreno about her husband’s death might help dismantle the syndicate. With Moreno on the run after narrowly evading a hit man herself, and the legendary Russian assassin known as Black Wolf hot on their heels, Scott and Gutiérrez embark on a blood-spattered quest to make things right. Gómez-Jurado continues to skillfully render the inner workings of Scott’s hyperactive mind, and the action in this installment is even more relentless than the series opener. Admirers of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium novels will eat this up. (Mar.)