The Stolen Chalice

In CNN journalist Pilgrim's overheated second romantic thriller featuring archeologist John Sinclair and oceanographer Cordelia Stapleton (after 2011's The Explorer's Code), the pair face an exhausting series of trials, which range from a heist at a Metropolitan Museum of Art gala to the looming threat of a catastrophic attack designed to bring down "half the governments of the industrialized world." Pilgrim populates her book's world with beautiful people wearing beautiful clothes and accessories, who travel in style on yachts and private jets, a description that applies to the good and bad guys alike. Chief villains are the exotic Lady Xandra Sommerset, a "British royal and international party girl," and charismatic Moustaffa Gemeyal, head of the terrorist group Common Dream and Xandra's lover. Sinclair's former lover, Egyptologist Dr. Hollis Graham, adds romantic tension. The action moves all over the world, with stops in New York, London, Scotland, and Venice, before reaching its fevered and unlikely climax in Sharm el Sheikh. (June)