False Move

In Hilton’s high-energy fifth thriller featuring Portland, Maine, PI Tess Grey and her professional and romantic partner, former crook Nicolas “Po” Villere (after 2018’s Worst Fears), Tess meets with a childhood friend, Stella Dewildt, whose father, Aaron Lacey, a former cop now working for private security firm Elite Custodian Services, has vanished. Tess and Po immediately realize that both they and Stella are under surveillance by a team from Elite Custodian Services. The couple, for whom “the line between criminal and lawful [is] blurred,” uncover much more than a simple missing person case; murder, abduction, and blackmail are just the tip of the iceberg. Meanwhile, Tess must deal with her mother, who has taken a strangely personal interest in Lacey’s disappearance. Fans will be delighted to know that the duo’s flamboyant eternal sidekick, Pinky Leclerc, is locked and loaded and ready to roll. Hilton provides a doozy of a wham-bam finale, with Tess and Po pitted against a platoon of highly trained operatives. Fans will eagerly await their next adventure. Agent: Luigi Bonomi, LBA Literary (U.K.). (May)