Scarecrow Returns

After the initial stage setting, the outstanding fourth novel in Reilly’s action thriller series that began with Ice Station (1998) blasts off and never slows. Marine Capt. Shane M. “Scarecrow” Schofield, last seen in the novella Hell Island (2005), travels to the Arctic with a group of civilians and his female buddy and second-in-command—burly, six-foot-two, shaven-headed Gunnery Sgt. Gena Newman—to test a variety of advanced weaponry. Nearby, the secretive Army of Thieves, led by a man known only as the Lord of Anarchy, has taken over Dragon Island, a mothballed Russian secret weapons testing site. The ante rises after the Thieves announce their intention to explode the Tesla Device, a weapon powerful enough to ignite the world’s atmosphere and wipe out much of humanity. The characters offer enough flesh and blood to be convincing, but it’s the high-speed action and battle sequences that propel Reilly to the front of the pack of this particular subgenre. Agent: WME. (Jan.)