Final Target

Thriller Award–winner Gilstrap’s exciting eighth outing for hostage rescue specialist Jonathan Grave (after 2015’s Against All Enemies) takes Grave and his partner, Brian Van De Muelebroecke (aka Boxers), on a mission to the Mexican jungle, where they succeed in rescuing DEA agent Harry Dawkins from a compound controlled by drug lord Alejandro Azul. They kill Dawkins’s captors and evade armed pursuit only to discover that the pilot who was supposed to fly them to safety has abandoned them. The three wind up at an orphanage, la Casa de Santa Inés, where they find 13 children and a hidden storage area filled with military equipment belonging to Azul. Inevitably, Grave, Boxers, and Dawkins take the children under their wing. The three men face innumerable obstacles as they and their young charges, who display expected and unexpected bravery, make their way to the coast in a bid for freedom. Fans of epic adventure stories will find plenty to like. Agent: Anne Hawkins, John Hawkins and Associates. (July)