cover image Vanished: The Nicole Jones Series

Vanished: The Nicole Jones Series

Karen E. Olson. Severn, $28.99 (224p) ISBN 978-0-7278-8755-9

Olson’s frenetic fourth Black Hat thriller (after 2017’s Betrayed) finds bespectacled 40-year-old artist Tina Adler, a former computer hacker once known as Nicole Jones, at a Charleston, S.C., art gallery, where wealthy society matron Madeline Whittier expresses interest in buying one of Tina’s watercolors. Madeline also tells Tina she looks familiar. Tina, who’s anxious about preserving her anonymity, excuses herself. A quick computer search reveals a connection between Madeline’s college-age son, Ryan, who disappeared in Paris four months earlier, and Tina’s love interest, FBI special agent Zeke Chapman. Tina is soon fleeing from the FBI; the hit men who have been hired by her arch nemesis, gangster Tony DeMarco; and assorted villains lurking on the web. Tina runs, leaps, bounces, slams, and spins along in a race across the country that eventually takes her to Paris. The only element that doesn’t zip along at breakneck speed is Tina and Zeke’s romance, as much of their courtship is carried out in chat rooms. Still, series fans will enjoy the ride. Agent: Josh Getzler, Hannigan Salky Getzler. (Feb.)