Six Seconds

This well-crafted and timely thriller uncovers a terrorist plot stretching from the Middle East to the American West. When recently widowed Mountie Dan Graham pulls a dying girl from a river, her tremulous last words lead Dan to track down the girl's father, a washed-up conspiracy theorist reporter who has finally stumbled upon a genuine conspiracy. California bookseller Maggie Conlin searches for her husband, traumatized Iraq war contractor Jake, who has kidnapped their young son, Logan, and fled to Montana. Samara Ingram, an Iraqi-British nurse whose husband and son were brutally murdered in Baghdad by renegade Western troops, takes slow steps toward retribution. Mofina (Every Fear ) shifts smoothly and deftly among their stories until all three are drawn together in the final, suspense-packed rush to prevent a devastating moment of destruction and revenge. (Jan.)