cover image Hong Kong Black: A Nick Foley Thriller

Hong Kong Black: A Nick Foley Thriller

Alex Ryan. Crooked Lane, $25.99 (352p) ISBN 978-1-68331-028-0

In Ryan’s by-the-numbers sequel to 2016’s Beijing Red, former Navy SEAL Nick Foley looks into the mysterious disappearance of undercover CIA agent Peter Yu, who had been conducting routine surveillance of tech companies in the Chinese city of Xi’an. Not long after Foley avoids two attempts on his life and bumps heads with operatives from China’s elite Snow Leopard counterterrorism unit, Yu’s body washes up in Hong Kong harbor, along with dozens of other corpses with strange incisions on their torsos and missing eyes, noses, and genitals. Along with returning series character and love interest Dazhong Chen, a beautiful Chinese microbiologist, Foley finds himself chasing after a 21st-century, DNA-enhanced organ harvesting ring. All this adds up to quick jolts of action tempered by moments of romance. Seasoned thriller fans have seen all this before. Ryan is the pseudonym of Brian Andrews and Jeffrey Wilson, both U.S. Navy veterans. (May)