Fearless

CWA Gold Dagger winner Craven (Dead Ground) ventures to the U.S. for the first time in this tense but underwhelming series launch about the search for a kidnapping victim in Texas’s Chihuahuan Desert. Anchoring the action is Ben Koenig, a former U.S. marshal whose professional slipup six years earlier stirred the ire of Russian organized crime and forced him off the grid. He’s lured out of the shadows by his former boss, whose daughter, Martha, has disappeared from the campus of Georgetown University, where she was studying forensic accounting. Though he suspects Martha is already dead, Koenig agrees to investigate. Rumors that Martha was researching a suspicious energy company lead Koenig to Gauntlet, Tex., where a solar farm has sprung up, owned by a former Georgetown student with a questionable past. Once there, Koenig leans on his military training to muscle through a high-octane rescue mission. Craven excels at writing action, and his strong prose has occasional Chandleresque overtones—a worn-out waitress has “a smile like a coffin lid.” The plot, though, suffers from jumpy pacing and distracting contrivances, with certain key coincidences too implausible to believe. Hopefully, Craven works out the kinks next time around. Agent: David H. Headley, DHH Literary. (July)