The Black Shepherd

Savile’s so-so second Eurocrimes thriller (after 2018’s The Memory Man) takes Frankie Varg, a field agent for the Eurocrimes Division, which covers sensitive crimes that cross member-state borders, to Tallinn, Estonia, where Frankie’s 19-year-old cousin, Irma Lutz, may have dropped out of the city’s University of Technology and joined a religious cult called One World. Frankie ignores the directive that “no agent was permitted to work a case where they had a personal connection.” In her effort to rescue Irma, she rushes into danger without backup or even a sensible plan of action. Meanwhile, Frankie’s colleague, Peter Ash, comes to Tallinn to identify a murdered woman whose body was discovered in a fire. His main objective, however, is to find Frankie, who’s now posing as a homeless person. She’s quickly recruited into One World and meets its charismatic leader, known as the Shepherd. No surprise, One World turns out to be a vast empire of evil. Readers should be prepared for routine plotting and characters with little depth. (Aug.)