Robert Ludlum’s The Blackbriar Genesis

This worthy addition to the Ludlum enterprise, a series launch from Gervais (the Clayton White thrillers), centers on Blackbriar, a secret agency that’s been mothballed for years, but has been revived to complement the Treadstone agency. Treadstone uses assassination to support American interests, whereas Blackbriar focuses on disrupting foreign intelligence operations. Treadstone agent Oliver Manton is assigned to protect Assistant Deputy Secretary of State Edward Russell, who’s in Cairo on a diplomatic mission. Manton thwarts an attack on Russell, and one year later, Russell, now the Director of National Intelligence, offers him a job as director of Blackbriar, which Manton accepts. Blackbriar has two of its agents—former FBI agent Helen Jouvert and former CIA officer Donovan Wade—in Cairo tasked with neutralizing a leak in U.S. intelligence. Jouvert and Wade later head to Prague to investigate the killing of a Treadstone agent. There, they face five Mexican cartels and Russian intelligence operatives who have joined forces in a disinformation operation against the U.S. Gervais delivers the exciting action, colorful heroes and villains, and seamless plots that readers have come to expect from this dependable franchise. Ludlum would be proud. Agent: Eric Myers, Myers Literary Management. (Oct.)