Heroes Proved

North’s clichéd fourth thriller featuring Peter Newman (after 2010’s The Assassins), the first without coauthor Joe Musser, offers plenty of red meat for political conservatives. In 2032, Newman’s son, James, who works with his father as a top executive at a private security firm, finds himself in the crosshairs of the unnamed U.S. president, the first woman to hold that office, who bears him a grudge from a 2026 congressional investigation. Meanwhile, fearful that the truth could spoil her re-election chances, the president is eager to blame terror attacks in Houston on domestic malcontents rather than on Islamic fundamentalists since she cut a deal with an Islamic leader that purportedly ended Muslim terror. Despite the passage of 20 years, little has changed technologically, apart from the Web being renamed the Mesh. Predictability and inattention to detail (would the president and the vice president fly in the same plane?) further mar this pallid effort. Agent: Bob Barnett. (Nov.)