Wolf Trap

In this exhilarating thriller from Sullivan (Sleeping Bear), U.S. president Angela Buchanan is on the brink of a major political victory with the imminent signing of a sweeping international climate-change agreement. But when “the world’s seven experimental ‘clean energy’ thorium molten salt reactors” simultaneously melt down, a special group of U.S. intelligence officials and operatives from multiple agencies and departments must try to find the conspirators responsible before the nations assemble in Davos, Switzerland, to finalize the treaty. Brian “Lobo” Rhome, once a paramilitary officer with Ground Branch, the CIA’s most elite covert ops force, and the haunted lone survivor of an al-Qaeda ambush in Pakistan, now hides in the Montana backcountry, trying to leave his military past behind. Drawn back into the fold to enact revenge on the terrorist who slaughtered his comrades, Rhome finds himself in the center of the battle to save Buchanan and prevent a global war over fossil fuels. Sullivan’s clever rhetorical tricks will keep even savvy readers in the dark while he ratchets the tension ever higher. By the end, readers will be exhausted, breathless, and eager for further Ground Branch adventures. Sullivan is a writer to watch. Agent: Meg Ruley, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (Mar.)