cover image Power Play

Power Play

Catherine Coulter. Putnam, $26.95 (416p) ISBN 978-0-399-15734-9

Early in bestseller Coulter’s smooth, if minimally suspenseful, 18th FBI thriller (after 2013’s Bombshell), Special Agent Davis Sullivan helps thwart a carjacker who’s trying to steal a vehicle from the parking lot of a Washington, D.C., shopping mall. The car’s owner turns out to be Natalie Black, the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom, where an unknown enemy has been targeting her (e.g., a Mercedes tried to run her Jaguar off a motorway). Sullivan agrees to protect Natalie, but later switches to guarding her sportswriter daughter, Perry, after someone wrecks her motorcycle. A private security firm takes over Natalie’s security. Meanwhile, psychopath Blessed Blackman escapes from an Atlanta mental institution and goes after married FBI agents Dillon Savich and Lacey Sherlock. Blackman and Savich are old foes, but the reason for the attacks on Natalie and Perry remains unclear until the end. The attraction between Sullivan and Perry adds spice. Agent: Robert Gottlieb, Trident Media Group. (July)