Fatal Intrusion

This sure-footed collaboration between bestseller Deaver (The Bone Collector) and Maldonado (The Cipher) centers on special agent Carmen Sanchez, who’s recently been assigned to Homeland Security investigations in Southern California. Sanchez’s rash approach to a hostage situation in the desert town of Ario infuriates her by-the-book colleague, Kevin Albright, who wants her arrested for reckless endangerment. Their boss persuades Albright to keep the handcuffs off Sanchez, but as soon as she’s in the clear, she gets thrown into another intense situation: her younger sister, Sara, has been physically assaulted outside a café near her university. Sanchez takes the cell phone dropped by Sara’s attacker to her friend, private security expert Jacoby Heron, who unlocks the phone and deciphers its encrypted files. Sifting through the data, Sanchez and Jacoby unravel a complex plot connecting Sara’s assailant to a series of homicides and a cyberterrorism ring intent on fostering political discord across California. Slick, cinematic action and fastidiously detailed investigative work bring this series launch to life. Deaver and Maldonado make a good match. Agents: (for Deaver) Deborah Schneider, Gelfman Schneider Literary; (for Maldonado) Liza Fleissig, Liza Royce Agency. (Aug.)