Upriver: A Linus Schag, NCIS, Thriller

In the harrowing prologue of Hill’s exciting third Linus Schag thriller (after 2017’s The Butcher’s Bill), three “special warfare operators”—one Green Beret and two Navy SEALs—are rescued by helicopter after coming under fire from ISIS forces in Iraq, having already lost a fourth team member, Stevens. Hill teases a complex backstory for that scene with a reference to Stevens having come up with a plan to make the quartet rich. After one of the survivors, Staff Sgt. Anthony Broderick, is found shot in the head with his service pistol outside his quarters, the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command arrests the remaining two men, Navy officers Raymond Sikes and Thomas Rankin, for Broderick’s murder. Schag’s tasked with transporting the prisoners, but the assignment turns even more hazardous when they escape after an IED explosion. Schag must both retrieve his charges and discover the truth behind the deaths. Hill is adept at blending action and detection and in evoking the real-life experiences of those involved with Operation Inherent Resolve, the 2014 U.S. initiative to combat ISIS’s expanding influence. Lee Child fans will be pleased. (Self-published)