Nobody’s Hero

Ben Koenig, a former U.S. marshal who cannot feel fear, returns in Craven’s exhilarating and darkly comic follow-up to Fearless. When a woman murders two pickpockets and abducts an elderly woman in a London park, the CCTV footage triggers an alert that points investigators toward a top secret CIA file. Inside is a reference to “the Acacia Avenue Protocol” and a list of four names—three dead men and Ben Koenig. Ben knows nothing about the Protocol, but upon reviewing the video footage, he recognizes the killer as a woman he helped assume a new identity a decade earlier. Though he still doesn’t understand the full scope of that mission, he knows she’s privy to ultrasensitive American intelligence. Ben and his brutally efficient CIA handler race to find the woman, unwittingly getting in the way of father-daughter assassin duo Stillwell Hobbs and Harper Nash, who have been tracking down and killing everyone involved with the Protocol. Craven effectively mixes the unvarnished brutality and high body count of Lee Child with the black humor of Mick Herron (one character bludgeons another until “his skull was softer than warm ice cream”). With style, wit, and plot twists to spare, Craven cements this series as a must-read. Agent: David Heady, DHH Literary. (Dec.)