Shadow Target

Ricciardi’s decently plotted if somewhat predictable fourth Jake Keller thriller (after 2020’s Black Flag) opens with the crash of a small commercial plane in the French Alps, and only Jake, a member of the CIA’s Special Activities Center, walks away. Before a rescue helicopter can whisk him to safety, Jake observes two armed men looking for something or someone—maybe him. Jake’s survival is bad news for Russian oligarch Nikolai Kozlov, who wants him dead because he might cause problems for a planned assassination of a national leader in London. Fears that someone is after him along with a suspicion that a higher than normal number of his colleagues are dying prompt Jake to investigate, which leads to a lot of international travel, some muddy intra-agency intrigue, and substantial violence as Kozlov’s team tries to neutralize Jake. Jake may not have much depth, but many will applaud his forthright patriotism (“He had seen firsthand the evil in the world and felt it was his moral obligation to eradicate as much of it as he could”). This is an action movie in book form. Agent: Rick Richter, Aevitas Creative Management. (June)