cover image Vortex

Vortex

Catherine Coulter. Morrow, $28.99 (400p) ISBN 978-0-06-300408-5

A missing person’s case kicks off bestseller Coulter’s nail-biting 25th FBI thriller (after 2020’s Deadlock). Journalist Mia Briscoe has never forgotten her college friend Serena, who disappeared at a rave seven years earlier. When another college friend contacts Mia after discovering photos of the rave on an old phone, Mia turns to FBI agent Lacey Sherlock for help in finding Serena. The stakes rise when it appears that one of the men at the rave was a blue-blooded politician whose race for New York City mayor Mia happens to be covering. Meanwhile, Lacey’s FBI agent husband, Dillon Savich, is looking into an attack on a CIA agent and how it might be linked to the disappearance of another CIA agent and the flash drive he got from an operative who was killed in Iran. The danger intensifies for Savich and Sherlock as they get closer to uncovering the answers to their respective investigations. Coulter does her usual fine job of building suspense by shifting between the parallel narratives. This long-running thriller series shows no sign of losing steam. Agent: Robert Gottlieb, Trident Media Group. (Aug.)