In the Crosshairs: A Sniper Novel

Coughlin and Davis’s entertaining 10th Sniper novel (after 2016’s Long Shot) finds CIA operator Kyle Swanson in San Luis de la Paz, Mexico, attending the funeral of pal Mickey Castillo of the Mexican Marines, when a bomb explodes as the casket is being lowered into the grave. Series fans may remember that Mickey was married to Beth Ledford, who was not only a member of Kyle’s old black-ops unit Task Force Trident but a love interest of Kyle’s before she gave up on him and married Mickey. The bombing is the opening salvo in a plan hatched by a mysterious drug lord known as the Prince, whose goal is to murder Kyle and destroy the CIA. Kyle takes some time to identify the mastermind, but once the lines are drawn, Kyle shifts into high gear and shows the Prince that, for all the man’s skills, he’s just one more in a line of killers who will sooner or later be getting his butt kicked by the indomitable Kyle. Some readers might wish for a more formidable foe next time. (Aug.)