The Havana Syndrome

Former DEA agent Higgins (The Forever Game) delivers a tiresome political thriller centered on FBI agent Nathan Burke, who teams up with a rookie partner for a sensitive case in the Bureau’s Afghanistan-Pakistan counterterrorism unit. When evidence emerges that ISIS is involved in the case, Nathan’s boss tells him to go full steam ahead, but his focus shifts when his estranged wife, Reagan—a staffer at the U.S. embassy in the Dominican Republic—is stricken with a mysterious neurological ailment. Her symptoms are similar to those reported by embassy workers in Havana, and Nathan immerses himself in an investigation of the phenomenon being run by special agent Meili Chan, despite the fact that Reagan is openly carrying on an affair with one of her colleagues. Higgins writes credible action scenes, but Nathan’s one-dimensional mission turns him into an almost implausibly obstinate figure, and soon he becomes as irritating to the reader as he is to the other characters. The novel recovers somewhat in the home stretch, but there’s little to distinguish this from similar fare. (June)