The Fear Within

In Law’s twisty, suspenseful sequel to 2015’s Tenacity, Lt. Danielle “Dan” Lewis, of the British navy’s Special Investigation Branch, suspects that the drug-trafficking network she uncovered aboard the nuclear submarine HMS Tenacity has a wider reach and is resolved to pursue it, despite her captain’s directives to the contrary. Meanwhile, someone has been sending body parts to the National Crime Agency that appear to have come from women who were counted among the victims of serial killer Christopher Hamilton, her former partner, whom she helped put behind bars. The grisly packages bolster Dan’s long-held suspicions that Hamilton had an accomplice. Her superiors discount this theory, but that doesn’t stop her from pursuing it independently. An emotionally fraught encounter between Dan and Hamilton in prison calls to mind Thomas Harris’s The Silence of the Lambs. An independent and capable maverick willing to step on toes to achieve justice, Dan will appeal to Jack Reacher fans. Agent: Esther Newberg, ICM. (Feb.)