Sirens of Memory

This predictable thriller from Guha (the Ahriman Legacy series) opens in 2015 Texas, where Ritika Ghosh dreams of a Kuwaiti woman named Mariam failing to flee her husband, Tareq. Upon waking, Ritika is traumatized by memories from 25 years earlier revived by that nightmare. Ritika is the alias of Kuwaiti Mariam Al-Salem, who in 1990 was horribly abused by Tareq. Amid the chaos of Iraq’s invasion that year, a pregnant Mariam succeeded in escaping from Tareq, who she believed died during the war. Her fear that she would be considered responsible for her persecutor’s demise and then her guilt have led her to keep her past—and the real identity of her daughter’s father—a secret from her current spouse. At an event in Washington, D.C., remembering the invasion’s 25th anniversary, Mariam sees Tareq, who has somehow survived. From there, the by-the-numbers plot eventually builds, without much tension, to a dramatic confrontation between Mariam and her abuser. Guha doesn’t make it easy to empathize with her thinly drawn lead. Fans of her spy novels will hope for a return to form next time. (June)