Damaged Intentions

At the start of bestseller Omer’s entertaining if flawed sequel to 2021’s A Deadly Influence, Lt. Abby Mullen, a single mother who’s in charge of crisis intervention for the NYPD, returns to North Carolina, where in 1987 she and two other children were the only survivors of a tragedy. Her parents and 57 others locked in a building were burned alive in a fire set by a cult leader. Abby, who’s at last ready to learn more about what happened, discovers something unsettling about one of the other survivors. Back home, she’s called to her 14-year-old daughter Samantha’s high school after three armed members of a terrorist organization enter it in the paranoid belief that they are duty bound to counteract conspirators who are kidnapping students and selling them to pedophiles. When things go awry, the terrorists take several hostages, including Samantha. The ensuing negotiations seeking to end the standoff are riveting, but attempts to tie in details from Abby’s fraught past detract from the suspense. Despite some narrative wobbles, readers will want to see a lot more of the resourceful Abby. Agent: Sarah Hershman, Hershman Rights Management. (Mar.)