Manhattan Lockdown

At the start of this fast-moving if unconvincing terrorist thriller from Batista (The Borzoi Killings), New York City's mayor, Roland Fortune, is celebrating his birthday at the roof garden of the Metropolitan Museum of Art when a series of bombs detonated in food carts along Fifth Avenue claim hundreds of lives, including that of his significant other. As Manhattan is placed on lockdown, Fortune's police commissioner, Gina Carbone, the NYPD's first female leader, scrambles to find those responsible for the outrage, even as the terrorists strike elsewhere. Unlikely developments, such as the U.S. president flying into the city without the NYPD being told he was en route, could have been dispensed with without lessening the drama inherent in the book's premise. None of the characters have any depth, and odd turns of phrase (the doctor attending to an injured Fortune is described as a "sober man with the weight and presence of a rabbi") further detract from what could have been a suspenseful look at a plausible scenario. (July)