Fake Truth: An Ian Ludlow Novel

At the start of bestseller Goldberg’s entertaining third Ian Ludlow novel (after 2019’s Killer Thriller), Ludlow, the author of a bestselling series starring macho freelance superspy Clint Straker, returns to the U.S. with Chinese actress Wang Mei, having facilitated her defection, as well as prevented the assassinations of both the French and American presidents. But after a promise to the government not to put his real-life adventures into his books, Ian is suffering a bad case of writer’s block. His research assistant, CIA operative Margo French, suggests investigating a random crime to spark his muse. A report of two tourists killed on a Portugal honeymoon leads Ian, with Margo’s CIA resources, to uncover an operation by the Kitchen, a Russian misinformation company utilizing its own secret asset—a sleeper agent and right-wing Fox News host, Dwight Edney—to stoke the news’ show’s viewers’ xenophobic fears with a fabricated violent immigration crisis and spark a U.S.-Mexico war. Who says preventing global destruction can’t be funny? Goldberg continues to inject a welcome dose of levity into the thriller genre. (Apr.)