Foolproof

Mystery authors D’Amato, Dams and Zubro try their hand at a thriller with less than stellar results. After 9/11, Brenda Grant and Daniel Henderson, who worked in the World Trade Center’s north tower but were in a nearby coffee shop when the first plane hit, start a security company secretly dedicated to stopping future terror attacks. Shortly before the 2008 presidential election (which bears no resemblance to the battle between Obama and McCain), an assailant kills Sarah Swettenham, a 32-year-old computer engineer Grant knew at college, by pushing her into Manhattan traffic. The day before, Swettenham had made an appointment to meet Grant. When the victim’s personal computers disappear, Grant gets really suspicious. Cartoonish characters, including a U.S. president who watches football on TV “all day on Saturdays and all day on Sundays,” don’t help the over-the-top plot, which builds to a dramatic denouement likely to elicit some unintended titters. (Dec.)