Robert Ludlum’s The Janson Option

Garrison’s second contribution to the Ludlum franchise (after 2012’s The Janson Command) offers action aplenty, along with a surfeit of subplots. Allegra Helms, a 30-year-old Italian countess, is aboard the superyacht Tarantula in the Indian Ocean when Somali pirate Maxammed seizes the ship and takes the passengers hostage. Allegra’s husband, Kingsman Helms, the president of the petroleum division of American Synergy Corp., hires Paul Janson’s Catspaw Associates to rescue his wife. To Janson and his partner and girlfriend, Jessica Kincaid, it appears to be a fairly straightforward assignment, but they quickly find themselves enmeshed in a murky stew of politics and international intrigue, which they must take time to sort out before making their rescue run on the Tarantula. Readers will hope that next time Garrison keeps the focus on the enterprise’s more thrilling aspects. Agent: Henry Morrison, Henry Morrison Literary Agency. (Mar.)